M. Butterfly

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and death by suicide.

Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly serves not only as the play’s deconstructive framework but also as a motif representing the themes of Blurring the Line Between Fantasy and Reality and The Selfishness of Love. Once Gallimard begins to describe the plot of the opera in Act I, Scene 3, he exposes his innermost wish to enact the opera’s events in real life. The scene reinforces this wish as Gallimard dramatizes his summary, acting out the role of Pinkerton, whom he sees as his avatar.

Gallimard continually evokes the opera throughout the play, referring to Song as his Butterfly. This subtly implies the disconnect between Song as an individual and Song as Gallimard sees her. Song enables Gallimard to live out his fantasy of being loved the way Butterfly loved Pinkerton. When Song reveals his gender and strips for Gallimard, Gallimard formalizes the division of his perceptions from Song’s individuality by declaring that he wasn’t in love with Song but with the lie he told.

The play subverts the Madame Butterfly narrative by recasting Gallimard in the Butterfly role, having him instead of Madame Butterfly die at the end for love.