Gender and Sexuality in World Literature
M. butterfly happens in a detention center located somewhere in Paris, France. It kicks off with the focus on a character by the name Monsieur Rene Gallimard who is an old man, aged sixty-five years. He is the key character to the play M. Butterfly. In the progression of the play, the character speaks to the audience by referring majorly to his experiences. This is evident on diverse divisions of the theater. The character is in prison where he tells the story to his readers. During the story, the writer creates a series of events for interpretation as the story progresses.
At the beginning of the play, the character, Gallimard gives the reader a rough picture of how his cell in the prison looked like. He also describes how legendary he was for some immense proceedings during his previous life before imprisonment. He had a delusion about Song Liling who was a lady boogieing to a love duo in an oeuvre called Madame Butterfly. There is an act of symbolism portrayed by the oeuvre referenced all through the play. The character outlines his daily schedule and persistently denies being a regular prisoner. Since he has been talking more of his delighted past, he is clearly informing the reader or other the audience that he is a famous person.
On the second scene of the play, there is a dialogue between unidentified individuals in a bar. Their dialogue focuses on the key character, Gallimard and his celebrity reputation. The dialogue indistinctly alludes to the major happenings of Gallimard’s past celebrity life. From the cell, Gallimard scrutinizes this scene and links it to the third scenario where he suggests that only one with an introduced to the oeuvre Madame Butterfly can comprehend. The main character plays additional roles in the play as a masculine figure that distinguishes the susceptible, as well as the reckoning character. His previous experiences state the corresponding incidents on the opus with an exception of his compassion.
The fourth scene of the play majors on the flashback of Gallimard’s life during his early days. During his childhood days, he lacked confidence being around girls and unsure as well about himself. The reason why he was in prison was that he faced conviction for treachery according to his personal edition of Madame Butterfly. The plot of scenes five and six appear to be comparable to his previous existence. Assorted to these descriptions, the reader gets clear reliable information concerning the life Gallimard as a young boy. He was incredibly insecure plus he wedded a wife by the name Helga.
From the scenes seven to ten, audiences witness Gallimard developing intimacy for the lady Song whose initiate was at an opus in Beijing. She was an artist playing Madame Butterfly personally. The scenes eleven and twelve focus on an intense follow up on Song by Gallimard who tries to find out if she is at all falling for him. The reason as to why Gallimard is doing this is to look for a validation to justify he truly is a man. According to his believes, it confirms that the moment he earns the promotion to a Vice-consul, which is a delightful spot in his section. The promotion acts as an inspiration in agreeing to the love he had for Song.
Gallimard love affair with Song kept going on strong. At one instant, he told his heads that he believes the fact Orientals will give in to better western power. There is another dialogue between Song with Comrade Chin as Song shares personal war details acquired from Gallimard. Later after that, Gallimard’s companion points an accusing finger to censure him for the incapability of producing a child. This final symbol confirms true manhood where in this case it mocks Gallimard and ruins his reputation as well. Gallimard thereafter begins another affair with a girl called Renee. The girl questions masculinity, which makes Gallimard build up insecurity concerning him.
With this demoralizing situation, Gallimard resolves to go back to Song. She manages to convince Gallimard that she is pregnant despite the fact that she is just making a fool out of him. Later, they end the affair after Song refuses Gallimard’s hand in marriage. Gallimard loses his job due to his lack of competence. Through a dialogue between Song and Chin, the audiences get to learn that Song and Gallimard had sexual intercourse. When Chin finds out about it, Song gets a four-year punishment. Song later gets the authority to go and spy on Gallimard and acquire more information on the war.
Fifteen years later, Song is in a court around Paris. The news comes out that a Chinese spy has been leaking information from Gallimard. Song turns out to be a man, and he further explains how he has been fooling Gallimard of being a woman for the past twenty years. He was fully aware of how insecure Gallimard was concerning his manhood and took advantage. On the final scene of the play, the audiences are back to the present where Gallimard commits suicide. This is corresponding to the Butterfly’s suicide in the play.
