In the play M.Butterfly, David Henry Hwang uses a relationship between Rene Gallimard, a french diplomat, and Song Liling, originally thought to be an actor but is then revealed to be a Chinese spy, to create a tragedy. After Gallimard falls in love with Song and separates from his wife he learns that Song is, in fact, a man. The audience’s opinion of his refusal to accept that his lover could be another man allows for several interpretations of Hwang’s reasons for writing this piece and what can be learned from it. Sexuality and gender identity are the two biggest topics within these interpretations. Rather than focusing on the sexuality of Gallimard and Song, it is also insightful to learn what we can about the gender which Gallimard identifies with and why. The idea of masculinity is much more broad than the simple word lets on to be. After sorting through the various definitions of
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The face you must show the world insist that everything it it is going to be just fine, that everything is under control that there’s nothing to be concerned about (a contemporary version of Alfred E. Neuman of MAD magazine’s “What, me worry?”). (609).
By creating the idea that “real men” can not show emotion he removes Gallimard from any possibility of being considered masculine using American standards. In the end of M.Butterfly Gallimard commits suicide after a speech about his feelings for Song Liling:
“My mistakes were simple and absolute—the man I loved was a cad, a bounder. He deserved nothing but a kick in the behind, and instead I gave him… all my love. Yes—love. Why not admit it all? That was my undoing, wasn’t it? Love warped my judgment, blinded my eyes, rearranged the very lines on my face… unit I could look in the mirror and see nothing but… a woman.” (Hwang 867).
This short passage describes enough emotion to discredit the idea of Gallimard’s
The face you must show the world insist that everything it it is going to be just fine, that everything is under control that there’s nothing to be concerned about (a contemporary version of Alfred E. Neuman of MAD magazine’s “What, me worry?”). (609).
By creating the idea that “real men” can not show emotion he removes Gallimard from any possibility of being considered masculine using American standards. In the end of M.Butterfly Gallimard commits suicide after a speech about his feelings for Song Liling:
“My mistakes were simple and absolute—the man I loved was a cad, a bounder. He deserved nothing but a kick in the behind, and instead I gave him… all my love. Yes—love. Why not admit it all? That was my undoing, wasn’t it? Love warped my judgment, blinded my eyes, rearranged the very lines on my face… unit I could look in the mirror and see nothing but… a woman.” (Hwang 867).
This short passage describes enough emotion to discredit the idea of Gallimard’s