M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is a parody of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. The play shows the problems of relying on unchallenged stereotypes and cultural misconceptions. David Henry Hwang attacks western stereotypes by refiguring the well-known theme of Madame Butterfly. He tries to break the century-old butterfly myth of Asian submissiveness to western dominance. In his play instead of a submissive Asian women falling for a western man, a western man falls for an Asian woman.
The events in the play are not in chronological order. Being a memory play of Rene Gallimard it takes us back and forth in time from his youth till his death in a prison. This is a story of a man who fall deep into his fantasy love with the image of Oriental woman and was deceived at the end. As Rene Gallimard says at the beginning at the play, “Alone in this cell, I sit night after night, watching our story play through my head, always searching for a new ending, one that redeems my honor, wher...