M. Butterfly

David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly assesses the role love plays in relationships and how that love interacts with gender and culture. Love is a powerful force that can lead to obliviousness of one's surroundings. The protagonist Rene Gallimard is a Frenchman residing in China and falls in love with a Chinese actor, abusing Rene as a spy. In the same respect, Rene sexually and emotionally abuses Song, the actor. The irony of Hwang's play …

…companionship in the relationship of Song and Rene and can recognize it was doomed from the start. Both parties got what they deserved with respect to the actions of their lives and had to endure the consequences. By embracing the Asian feminine mystique, as Puccini did in his opera Madama Butterfly, but skewing the ending, Hwang creates criticism of both the opera and stereotypes of Asians. Hwang's tale reinforces the old saying, "Love is blind."