POV Point of View Paper - Yan Davydov

§ December 18th, 2008 § Filed under Assignments, Point Of View § Tagged Yan Davydov

Point of View Paper:
Considering David H. Hwang’s M. Butterfly and David Belasco’s Madama Butterfly

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that is to say, what is beautiful for one may not be so for another. The play Madama Butterfly by David Belasco and the dramatic play M. Butterfly by David H. Hwang both deal with the topic of Western attraction towards the stereotypically humble and modest Butterflies of the Orient. Having read the dramatic play M. Butterfly after reading the play Madama Butterfly, uncertainties are raised about how one would feel about both works in relation to one another, and effectively deciding whether or not they are “beautiful” in one’s eyes. Although can be admired and greatly enjoyed on a separate scale, co-examining their unique approaches to the Western/Oriental relationship will raise questions as to any original opinion of Madama Butterfly because of what is presented in M. Butterfly.
When I first read Belasco’s play, I found it to have a truly enticing storyline. Each added twist – a wealthy Japanese suitor, a young baby, a new wife, adoption – threw me for a loop and made me just a little bit more eager to find out how the story ends. I was most impressed by Cho-Cho-San’s saint-like bravery and patience with the entire heart wrenching ordeal. The end scene, in which Cho-Cho-San performs the ritualistic hari-kari because she believes that is better to “die with honor when one can no longer live with honor,” shows just how painful finally realizing Pinkerton abandoned her was to her. After reading it, I considered Madama Butterfly to be one of the most beautiful tales of unrequited love ever written. Pinkerton’s selfishness and mistakes did not go unnoticed, but it seemed to me that this was the expected and usual course of a Western/Oriental relationship, as both Mr. Sharpless and Yamadori repeatedly reminded Cho-Cho-San.
But after reading David H. Hwang’s M. Butterfly I realized that as a young Westerner myself, I had not at all shown empathy for the other side of the spectrum – that of Asian people. One paragraph in particular in M. Butterfly resounded deeply for me, and changed everything. The paragraph begins with a sharp accusation from the character Song Liling against Rene Gallimard. As Song said, “It’s one of your favorite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man.” This quote could very well be Hwang vicariously expressing his personal opinions against the phenomenon of romanticized Western-Dominant/Oriental-Submissive relationships that were so common during the greater part of his lifetime, the 20th Century. After reading Belasco’s Madama Butterfly, Hwang commented that, “it contained a wealth of sexist and racial clichés, reaffirming my faith [or lack thereof] in Western culture” (Hwang 86). I understood that for Hwang, the famous Madama Butterfly was not beautiful at all, to say the least.
In order to understand possible motives that Hwang may have had in writing M. Butterfly, one should take into consideration his background history. From the foreword in the Dramatists Play Service copy of M. Butterfly, I learned that Hwang was born in 1957 in California to first generation Chinese-Americans. He grew up in California and today lives in Los Angeles. By all counts, I would say that Hwang grew up as an American through and through. Then, in 1986, the unbelievable scandal involving an imprisoned French diplomat and his Chinese lover was publicized. It turned out to be a Chinese male spy who paraded around as a woman for twenty years with the French diplomat in order to obtain valuable information from him. With this, the wheels were put in motion for one of Hwang’s great works, M. Butterfly.
Although I do not think there is any reason to believe Hwang’s motives were actually anti-Western, M. Butterfly is not without its faults. There are moments in M. Butterfly that outright humiliate the Western character, Rene Gallimard. Indeed, the two main white characters, Rene and his friend Marc, represent only two stereotypical manifestations of Westerners. Rene is the weak man who falls short of success all his life, and Marc is made out to be the promiscuous playboy with no morals. In an ultimate “slap to the Westerner’s face,” Rene realizes too late that he was duped into being the Oriental butterfly, a role reversal that was planned by Song since the beginning. (The “M” in M. Butterfly does not stand for “Madama,” but rather for “Monsieur.”) The following excerpt from M. Butterfly (a continuation from the earlier mentioned quote) gives further insight into the mindset of Hwang, as expressed via the character Song:

Song: Consider it this way: what would you say if a blonde homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now, I believe you would consider this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it’s an Oriental who kills herself for a Westerner – ah! – you find it beautiful. (Silence)

This paragraph brings up the possibility that perhaps Belasco’s Madama Butterfly is actually an erroneous representation of what true love is. Hwang argues that the typical Western/Oriental relationship is a humiliating scam for the Asian party. For him, Madama Butterfly is based entirely on this principle and there is nothing beautiful about the story.
As I’ve already said, I admire and greatly enjoy Belasco’s Madama Butterfly and Hwang’s M. Butterfly as two separate works. But since the two are inarguably interlinked, each offering opposing views on the same topic, it is impossible to shield oneself behind that statement for long. When comparing the two works of art, it would seem that Madama Butterfly, the story of suicide in the name of true love, is the more romanticized one. M. Butterfly, the story of a grotesque relationship between a delusional man and an opportunistic antagonist, would be the more twisted one. However, there are facts that support the opposite argument for both works. In Madama Butterfly, Cho-Cho-San’s hari-kari is in itself a twisted act. And in M. Butterfly, Rene’s love for a stereotypical idealized “Oriental butterfly,” is as strong as, if not stronger than, Cho-Cho-San’s romantic love for Pinkerton – it certainly fooled him for 20 years.
Either way, both works are based on events that actually happened in real life at some point, which is to say that life is equally as romantic and twisted. After all, as Pablo Picasso said, “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth…” In my opinion, Madama Butterfly is beautiful, as is M. Butterfly. Hwang’s postmodern take on the Western/Oriental relationship serves to bring forward the other side of the story, inverting what was commonly accepted as the norm. I think they work together in a paradoxical sort of harmony, ultimately brining out the best and worst in one another.