Aesthetically, she must be beautiful. Gallimard’s best friend verifies his search for such a woman when he reminds him that “all [his] life [he’s] waited for a beautiful girl who would lay down for [him],” though it becomes clear soon enough that even his search for someone beautiful stems from the potential advance of power. As the play progresses, Gallimard proves this by admitting that “all men want a beautiful woman, and the uglier the man, the greater the want.” His hunger for a beautiful woman derives not from his desire to be with her, but from his desire to establish his dominance above others who are also deemed as unworthy. Characters like Pinckney who are “not very good-looking, not too bright, and pretty much a wimp,” but remain the hero and get the girl with little to no effort whatsoever only fuel the creation of such a perfectly subservient woman that could have the pleasure of falling in love with him. …show more content…
Within the first act of M. Butterfly, Gallimard recounts back to when he was a mere twelve year old visiting his uncle’s house. Upon visiting his home, young Gallimard grasped at the opportunity of having power over women, lusting over stacks of “girlie magazines.” He describes reveling in the opportunity to have complete jurisdiction over the fate of these scantily-clad women spread across the pages of the magazines, his “body [shaking] … with power” rather than lust. Even at a young age, Gallimard’s ideal lover operated as the subject of violent dehumanization. This dehumanizing force with which he views women becomes so deeply embedded in his views that he assumes it is in his right to abuse the women he