Butterfly", the process of implicating the audience by drawing .
parallels with Foucault's study of punishment, we come to see that rather than.
leaving the play with a greater understanding of our interiors, we have witnessed.
and participated in the operation of power and resistance on physical bodies in.
a Foucauldian system.
Much of the criticism on M. Butterfly has focused merely on the plot and.
indeed the content of the story is such that it ought to incite interest. Most.
mainstream plays do not have a collection of "tabloid" topics such as crossdressing,.
international intrigues, mistaken identity, and illicit homosexual.
affairs. However, critics who look only at the plot are allowing the sensational.
aspects of the plot to distract them from the theoretically radical structural.
effects of the play. Robert K. Martin and Robert Skloot only seem concerned.
with interpreting the play on the most basic level. Both have difficulty making.
sense of the ending of the play. .
In his interpretation, Martin goes so far as to reduce the final scene to the.
statement that "Gallimard, at the end is after all simply the dying queen."5.
Skloot at least seems to see the playas more than a case of cross-dressing, but.
his analysis remains firmly in a psychoanalytic understanding of Gallimard.
that leaves him confused with the ending: "Gallimard's transformation into.
Butterfly has several possible interpretations.is his suicide confessional.
transcendence or humiliating defeat? Has he accepted or rejected the woman in.
himself? Is one culture superior to another or merely different?,,6 Skloot does.
not arrive at any conclusion and attempts to justify the ambiguities by saying.
that the unanswered questions make us think about our own interiors. .
Dorrine K. Kondo has a perspective that goes beyond Skool's binary concerns. .
Her argument focuses on "the multiplicity of Asia and of women," and her.
article is useful in understanding Hwang's condemnation.
The passage starts out with her choppy interpretation of the trivial practices involved in the acceptance of communion. ... Both M. ... In the play M. Butterfly we see that Song Ling is the stereotype of the effeminate male throughout the majority of the story. ... The tables turn once again, though, with Galllimard's final transformation into the butterfly. ...
Through this narrative technique, other elements, such as the thriller genre, symbolism of the structure, and psychological interpretation are raised. ... In the evening I marked it in my observations diary, at first with X, and then when I knew her name with M. ... He originally observes her, as if she were his finest specimen, like a butterfly. ... This could also be seen as a frame around Miranda's, like a photograph or a butterfly collection, or could be symbolic of Clegg netting Miranda, as if she were a butterfly. ... I will not give in.much like a butterfly before it's death...
Marsden has redefined our interpretation of the meaning of the word friend or friendship. ... His room's full of Rambo posters, he watches all these violent movies, he dresses in Army greens, he's got all kinds of weapons, like two old guns of Grandpa's and butterfly knives and nunchaku and Rambo knives". ... "I"m scared of him he slaps me, knees me, kicks me. I lock my door quite often when I"m in my bedroom now, that's how much he, scares me". ... Tracey tells Mandy in one of her final letters "I"m gonna get out of Maximum S (security). ...
Non-proactive people tend to be emotional butterflies: "when people treat them well, they feel well; when people don't, they become defensive or protective . . . allowing the weaknesses of people to control them." ... Although I view this as a good habit to possess, I"m less interested in it than the first three. ... We tend to see things only through our own interpretation or understanding of their problems, not through their eyes. ...
Many critics regard "King Lear" as the greatest, and most tragic, of William Shakespeare's plays; indeed, some claim that it is the most tragic play ever written. And yet, it is difficult to see why we should regard "King Lear" as a tragedy for the King is basically a pathetic old man, vain and fool...