M. Butterfly

Feminism in M. Butterfly In the 1989 drama M. Butterfly, the masterwork of contemporary American playwright David Henry Hwang, the topic of sexual politics underlies all other themes, and creates a tension between the genders that pervades throughout the text; moreover, Hwang subverts traditional thematic aspects of sexual politics by questioning the most fundamental unit of sex by considering the very nature of gender and what defines a male or a female. These elements unite and develop a penetrating examination of feminism, and an inspection of the role of females in both Western and Eastern societies as they relate to males, and an exposé of the inequalities of gender which are present, perhaps fundamental, in both cultures. The tug-of-war for control, both sexual and intellectual, between male and female characters, especially Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, is ubiquitous throughout the text, and culminates in the final scene where Rene commits seppuku, or Japanese ritual suicide. In M. Butterfly, Hwang views feminism from a variety of unusual lenses by looking at both genders, and serving to draw attention to the traits and qualities of both using dialogue, character study, and clever dramatic techniques.
Any discussion of feminism in M. Butterfly must be chronological, and show the development of the characters over time; this allows the reader and audience to mark the character study of the selves over duration of the drama. In the opening act the reader is introduced to a very feminine Song Liling, the character who first assumes the function of the female. Hwang acquaints the reader with Song dancing, and in female garb, in the stage directions of the first act; yet the audience can guess as early as two pages later, in the opening of the second scene, that Song is a man and that Gallimard has been tricked, fooled, and that the entire city of Paris laughs at him. There is an interesting comment made here, by the trio of commentators in the second scene,