We first get a sense for who Rene is when he reveals his love for the opera Madama Butterfly. The first line he speaks in the first scene of the play is "Butterfly, Butterfly…" He's serving time for treason in a prison on the outskirts of Paris. He once lived the international life of a French Diplomat; now he's confined to live out his life in a tiny dark prison cell. He has nothing to live for. Everything he has ever had has been taken away from. The only thing that keeps him going is this fantasy he has for Madama Butterfly. It dampers his reality. The story gives him hope. He shares it with his fellow prisoners: "My name is Rene Gallimard – also known as Madame Butterfly." Rene became hooked on the romance of the opera Madame Butterfly. It's about a young Japanese geisha girl who devotes her life to an American sailor. She just about lives for him. In fact, even when he disappears for three years without a word, she continues to love him. When Cho- Cho-san – that's the girl's name – finds out that her American sailor has married a white woman, she can't control herself. She kills herself with her uncle's knife. Rene thinks the opera story is so beautiful. From witnessing Cho-Cho-san's passion, Rene becomes obssessed with the Asian woman. He wants to experience the same feeling of having a woman submit to him the way Cho-Cho-san submitted to her American Sailor. That's the "irony in his blood": At the end of the play, we learn that Rene has lost his woman. She was a man. Now he's dressed in make-up and a wig – like a woman. After he tells his audience his real name, Rene Gaillamard, he now reveals he is "Madama Butterfly." This is right before he drives a knife into his body. Clearly, Rene longed for the life he saw in Madama Butterfly, but I bet it just wasn't this one.
Here, the lyrics from Alanis Morrissette's "Ironic" fit nicely to the text of M. Butterfly: “And isn’t it ironic…”
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Alanis Morissette Lyrics – “Ironic” |
David Hwang Text – M. ButterflIy |
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It's the good advice that you just didn't take Who would've thought, it figures… |
This is the ultimate cruelty, isn’t it? That I can talk and talk and to anyone listening, it’s only air — too rich a diet to be swallowed by a mundane world.Why can’t anyone understand? That in China, I once loved, and was loved by, the Perfect Woman. ( Act Two – Scene 11 ) |
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It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife It's meeting the man of my dreams |
The love of a Butterfly can withstand many things — unfaithfulness, loss, even abandonment. But how can it face theone sin that implies all others? The devastating knowledge that,underneath it all,the object of her love was nothing more,nothing less than … a man. (Act Three – Scene Three) |
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He won the lottery and died the next day It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay |
My mistakes were simple and absolute — the man I loved was a cad, a bounder. He deserved nothing but a kick in the behind and instead I gave him … all my love … ( Act Three – Scene Three) |
Many people have criticized Alanis’ interpretation of irony in the song. Irony is the use of words to express the opposite of what is expected. They say her lines are weird or funny, but they are not ironic. For example, “like rain on your wedding day.” Stuff happens. The weather on you wedding day may be unfortunate, but it’snot ironic. Still, I like the song. You can’t say that the lyrics won’t make you think about possibility and expectation. What goes through the mind of a ninety-eight year old man who wins the lottery? How can he expect to spend his money? He’ll probably have a heart attack trying to figure it out. In M. Butterfly, Rene must have felt the same way for his relationship with Song. He had waited his whole life for her, and when he finally found her in his arms, he didn't know what to do with her. For Rene, Song gave him everything that he had ever wished for, and it killed him. That’s both funny and cruel.
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