M. Butterfly

In the beginning of the play Gallimard’s character portrays the West and Song represents the Other (East). The westerners are portrayed as “foreign devils” but the author makes Gallimard a sympathetic character. Especially at the end, a complete reversal takes place in the cultural aspect. It’s really unclear to me why was the cultural superiority reversed? The sexism and that the idealization of a woman is wrong was successfully depicted by Hwang. Through Song’s and Gallimard’s relationship the author illustrated the embedded mentality of western men towards Oriental women and the relationship of the West to the East. Gallimard’s distorted vision of the Orient, “Of slender women… who die for the love of unworthy foreign devils. Who are born and raised to be the perfect women. Who take whatever punishment we give them, and bounce back, strengthened by love, unconditionally. It is the vision that has become my life.” comes crashing at the end of the play. Nothing ideal can survive in the harsh reality of the human truth, which is confirmed by Gallimard’s tragic ending.