M. BUTTERFLY
Week #2 |
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Eyes, look your last!
-William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
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M. BUTTERFLY
- What's the significance of the scene where Helga tells Gaillimard she wants him to go to a doctor and get some medical tests (p. 40)?
- What's the significance of Song's name?
- Why is Gallimard's "it was her tears and silence that excited me, every time I vistied Renee" an important line?
- What ultimately fuels Gallimard's fantasy?
- At one point (p. 10) Gallimard feels he has transcended the Pinkerton image, saying for example:
"the image sickened me, pulled me to my knees so I was crawling towards her like a worm. By the time I reached her, Pinkerton had vanished from my heart. To be replaced by something new, something unnatural, that flew in the face of all I'd learned in the world--something very close to love (p. 47).
Is what he says really true; has he separated himself from the Pinketon image?
- What is the significance of the window images (see pp. 14 24).
- What's the significance of the very opening of the play when we see a shift from the Peking Opera to the Love Duet from Puccini's Madame Butterfly?
- What's the significance of the character Song saying:
As a Japanese woman? The Japanese used hundreds of our people for medical experiments during the war. But I gather that irony is lost on you.
- What is the significance of Gaillimard mentioning his "ideal audience?"
- What's the significance of the title?
- What's the significance of Gaillimard's and Song's first meeting?
- Gaillimard at one point says that he feels power. Why is this a significant contrast from his past self-image?
- What is the significance of the butterfly image?
- What is the significance of Song saying:
"How can you objectively judge your own values?"
- What is the significance of the fact that Gaillimard and Marc share an expensive bottle of wine?
- In the background of the play is the Vietnam war. What is the significance of these statements?
- Gaillimard
If the Americans demonstrate the will to win, the Vietnamese will welcome them into a mutually beneficial union. ... Orientals will always submit to a greater force.
- Toulon:
You're not aware of this, but there's an informal gossip circle among intelligence agents/ And some of ours heard from some of the Americans--
Gaillimard:
Toulon:
That the U.S. will allow the Vietnamese generals to stage a coup...and assasinate President Diem.
Gaillimard:
I think...that's a very wise move.
Toulon:
It's what you've been advocating. A toast?
- What is the significance of the following line said by Song:
Song:
Now I see--we are always most revolted by the things hidden within us
- Much of the play is a "deconstruction" of M.Butterfly. What is the significance of this line?
Gaillimard:
In order for you to understand what I did and why, I must introduce you to my favorite opera: Madame Butterfly. By Giacomo Puccini. First produced in La Scala, Milan, in 1904, it is now beloved throughout the Western World.
- Why is it significant that the play begins and ends in a prison cell?
- What is the purpose of the Brechtian touches?
- What is the point of the scene where Song steps out of the witness box?
- What are some of the physical evidences of cross cultural interplay?
- What, then, is the ultimate point of the play?
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