ipl-logo

Madama Butterfly Character Analysis

1388 Words6 Pages

In the last chapter, both the Oriental man and woman, according to Edward Said, is represented by the Occident. The representation of the Oriental woman is frequently illustrated or named as the Oriental butterfly since Madama Butterfly, an iconic opera written by Giacomo Puccini. Grace Ji-Sun Kim in the Embracing the Other: The Transformative Spirit of Love stresses that Madame Butterfly “is viewed as the ideal ‘oriental woman.’ She is beautiful and subservient, small and fragile, like a butterfly” (64).
In the play Madama Butterfly, a delicate and deferential character Cio-Cio-San, named as Butterfly by her friend, falls in love with a worthless American sailor Pinkerton. Through the success of Madama Butterfly, the Occident constructs …show more content…

In American English Compendium, geisha is described as “traditional female entertainers providing singing, dancing, and conversation” (295); namely, as a geisha, Butterfly’s existence is supposed to entertain men. In Madama Butterfly, Butterfly certainly completes her duty in a marvellous way by pleasing Pinkerton, an American man, with all her devotion. At the end of the play, Butterfly even satisfies Pinkerton through sacrificing her life. As a consequence, Rene Gallimard has described Cio-Cio-San as a “heroine” since she is “a feminine ideal, beautiful and brave” (Hwang 5). Certainly, without courage, Butterfly cannot devote herself entirely to man without reservations or …show more content…

Pinkerton, according to Butterfly’s servant Suzuki, is a “loser” and “a sailor with dirty hands” (Hwang 12-13). However, Gallimard can see himself in Pinkerton. Looking back to Gallimard’s life at his early age, he is unpopular or, more precisely, invisible among girls. Therefore, Marc, Gallimard’s best friend, is trying to create a chance for Gallimard to become intimate with girls. Marc plans to have a sensual pool party at night with multiple nude girls and he invites Gallimard. By suggesting it is a blind party since everyone is in the dark, Mar has tried to convince Gallimard to join (Hwang 8). Marc believes that darkness is certainly a perfect covering for Gallimard since nor the ugly face or the timid personality he has would be noticed. Thus, the party is supposed to provide sufficient sense of security to

Show More
Related

Hadamar Rhetorical Analysis

284 Words | 2 Pages

How can my fellow community members in Hadamar do nothing, while you murder my son and others with mental illnesses? As this question continues to plague my mind, I cannot fathom how you justify these actions. My son, Jonathan, is not “genetically defective” as you say, my son is not a “financial burden,” and my son is certainly not “inferior” to any of the other Germans. My son is a true gift from God, not some barbarian whose only use is to be gassed.

Read More

In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

2427 Words | 10 Pages

Julia Alvarez uses In the Time of the Butterflies as a great channel to show feminine freedom. Although women can be seen as inferior to men and experience many hardships, over the course of the novel the women see more independence. Darren Broome analyzes Julia Alvarez’s use of females, and their prescription throughout the novel. Broome is currently a professor at Gordon College teaching French and Spanish. He has a PhD in Romantic Languages from the University of Alabama.

Read More

Analysis Of From The Preface To The Final Chapter Heinrichs

528 Words | 3 Pages

From the Preface to the final chapter Heinrichs is pushing across the development of a strong argument from the offensive side to the defensive side of the table. As Heinrichs is teaching he uses his own knowledge of the art through the three persuasive proofs of Aristotle. In the Preface of the novel Heinrich reels you in with the use of the three proofs, “ few people can say that John Quincy Adams changed their lives….”(Preface) Heinrich brought us in by t5he use of logos of something that probably did not happen to us. Beginning with the offense, Heinrichs begins with three basic steps stimulating, changing, and doing the final product.

Read More

My Antonia Character Analysis

1128 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather, the character Antonia Shimerda learns several life lessons that significantly influence her life as a young woman and into her adult years. According to the dictionary a life lesson is “something from which useful knowledge or principles can be learned.” As an bohemian immigrant Antonia gains knowledge of the American lifestyle which is able to teach her how to progress through life’s many challenges. Three major lessons that contributed to developing her into a loving mother and rich mine of life include her open- mindedness, optimism, and maturity regarding hard work at a young age. To begin, Antonia learns to be open- minded despite the troublesome situations she experiences during the course

Read More

The Outsiders Character Analysis Essay

1565 Words | 7 Pages

Ponyboy is the main character in the novel by S.E Hinton The Outsiders. The book is told in his point of view of the whole story. He is a caring, considerate, 14-year-old boy. Even though he has grown up as a greaser, which meant that he grew up on the hard side of town. Greasers were a social status in a way and were frowned upon by the higher-ups.

Read More

A Raisin In The Sun Mama Character Analysis Essay

1089 Words | 5 Pages

One of the main protagonists, Mama, is telling her son the reasons for what she did to help her family’s struggle. She says, “When it gets like that in life-you just got to do something different, push on out and do something bigger....” (588). The character Mama gets a check from the insurance company for $10,000 dollars due to her husband’s death and she doesn't know what to do with it. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama is motivated to/by the chance to get her family a house.

Read More

Character Analysis Of Catcher In The Rye

873 Words | 4 Pages

What does someone do when he is falling apart but has no one he can trust to turn to? This is the scenario that a young, unstable Holden Caulfield must face throughout his journey of adolescence. In the novel The Catcher in The Rye by J. D. Salinger, Holden Caulfield is a sympathetic character. The novel is a bildungsroman, which shows that at first the protagonist may not assimilate well with the rest of society. Holden is a troubled teenager who cannot form relationships.

Read More

Social Norms In Catcher In The Rye And Nervous Conditions

1864 Words | 8 Pages

The purpose of my essay is to explore how different social backgrounds and the social norms that follow affect the personality of two fictive characters and encourage them to break out of their station to find an identity. The protagonists Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye and Tambudzai in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel Nervous Conditions are both victims of social norms. Therefore, the foundation of this essay was to analyze the character’s social background, which has influenced their personalities, behavior and aspirations, and consequently their opposing actions against society. Holden Caulfield is an American adolescent during the period after the Second World War.

Read More

Character Analysis: The Catcher In The Rye

720 Words | 3 Pages

Holden Caulfield, the main protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, embodies the classic teenager in the process of discovering himself, and how the world works. But, regardless of Holden 's rich, prep school lifestyle, the series of events that have mapped out his life up to this point have utterly affected his emotional well being and perception of the world. Many traumatic events such as the death of holds brother Allie, the death of a class mate, and countless numbers of awkward incidents with adults have all added up to affects Holden 's well-being and detach him from reality. The death of Holden 's younger brother Allie has caused him to confuse his perception of reality and to alienate himself.

Read More

Saving Private Ryan Character Analysis

847 Words | 4 Pages

a. Saving Private Ryan is a movie about the horrors of World War II. The external conflict comes from the battlefield. Captain John Miller and his platoon have to fight against the Axis powers all while fighting for their own lives in the bloodiest conflict of the 20th century. The Avengers is a movie starring a group of superheros saving the planet from an apocalyptic like event at the hands of Loki the God of Mischief.

Read More

Silver Linings Playbook Character Analysis

770 Words | 4 Pages

The characters of many popular movies tend to have various mental and physical illnesses, but they are often romanticized and not portrayed correctly. In Silver Linings Playbook, both of the main characters have a mental illness and they are displayed fairly accurately. However, it is slightly romanticized and leaves the viewer with the impression that everything is okay after a kiss and that together, the main characters will both be much better with their illnesses. Silver Linings Playbook is about a man named Pat Solitano who has just returned from an eight month stint in a mental hospital and has been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. He was required by law to be treated in the mental hospital because he had previously almost beaten a man to death after discovering he had an affair with his wife, Nikki.

Read More

Queerness In M. Butterfly

1481 Words | 6 Pages

The reading of M. Butterfly in which Song is a genderqueer femme person gives the play a depth and relevance to the modern audience because, like the audience, the character is diverging from the cultural gender binary. (Of course, this is not to say genderqueer people did not exist before current time rather it has become more publicly accepted in larger Western culture in recent years.) Song exemplifies the notion that all gender is performative. Though Song rejects the gender binary, Gallimard clings to it. In his death, he dons Butterfly 's robes, unable to accept a male/male relationship (he sees Song as a man).

Read More

Phantom Of The Opera Character Analysis

717 Words | 3 Pages

In the book Phantom of the Opera, Erik is a man who has a lot of power; he would use his power to hurt and manipulate people. He was a man of trade and had the ability to manipulate people with his amazing skills as a lover of magic. Many people wondered how he had gotten to that point, but they soon realized when they noticed how ugly he was. His mother and father never loved him because of how unattractive he was.

Read More

Mary Poppins Character Analysis

1490 Words | 6 Pages

Children have an unparalleled view of the world, one that is very innocent and magical. Unfortunately, as children grow up they often lose this wonder. However, some adults do keep some aspects of their childhood wonder and happiness. Throughout the film Mary Poppins, as directed by Robert Stevenson, there is a noticeable difference between the adults that preserved their sense of wonder and those who have lost it. Through the development of the characters, Bert and Mr. Banks, Stevenson illuminates the need to preserve some of the childlike wonder, as one grows up, in order to be happy within their adult life.

Read More

Character Analysis Billy Elliot

961 Words | 4 Pages

In the film, Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, set in County Durham, England during the miner’s strike in 1984, a character that I found thought provoking was Jackie Elliot. Jackie Elliot’s family (consisting of his youngest son, Billy, the main character of the film, and his oldest son, Tony, and his mother known as Grandma) is severely affected by the strike as both Jackie and Tony are miners who are on strike. Jackie is portrayed as a quick-tempered, narrow-minded and traditional father allowing us to wonder about his true traits. Later on in the film, we see Jackie’s more accepting side of Billy’s dream to do ballet. He is more trustful, optimistic and affectionate.

Read More

More about Madama Butterfly Character Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document