From here on, Gallimard is utterly lost in fantasy about what is real and what is not. Disassociate personality gives Gallimard the fantasy when truth is too much for him too handle. He often behaves as though he was as made up as Song. In his head, he was playing out his fantasy. This is his coping method (K irwin 62-64).
After years of dreaming, lusting, fixated about Song, he still cannot tell self-deception from truth.
He greets her with, Not again. My imagination is hell (Hwang 1251).
Song asks him to touch her, to feel the reality of her presence. Gallimard replies, Why? So you can disappear again and leave me clutching at the air? For the entertainment of my neighbors (Hwang 1251).
It is obvious he has gone through these psychotic episodes before. Poor Gallimard knows he is insane. In a brief moment of clarity, he sees the insanity and all the wasted years bent under the yoke of it. It drives him further into the abyss of it, Im pure imagination, and imagination I will remain (Hwang 1257).
Gallimards actions brought about several consequences. First and foremost was that his experiment was successful. Song noticed that Gallimard was not attending the opera and ceased to call and visit. She started writing Gallimard on a weekly basis. Each letter would sound more and more desperate for Gallimards attention.
Gallimard was of course reveling in the success of his plan. That is until the last letter, which proved his ultimate victory. In this letter, Song says the following. I am out of words.
The Essay on M Butterfly By Hwang
M. Butterfly by Hwang. From year to year it is a tendency that peoples thoughts and emotions have been becoming more complicated. These causes contrasts and illusions, modern life is full with. And in his great work M. Butterfly Hwang explores all the illusions of life; not only between a Western man and Oriental woman, but also the illusions of power, illusions between the East and the West, ...
I can hide behind dignity no longer. What do you want? I have already given you my shame (Act 1, Scene 12).
Reading this, Gallimard suddenly became ashamed. She was turning on [his] needle (Act 1, Scene 12).
Although he had won, Gallimards victory felt empty.
The main reason for this is that Gallimard is an innately decent man. The fact that he has taken the shame of a woman is too much to bare for him. He gained power over a woman but did not know his limits and felt that he abused the power he had attained. Ultimately, the decision is not what actually led to the unfortunate downfall of Gallimard and the destruction of the relationship thereof. The experiment was merely a catalyst that pushed the relationship of Song Living and Rene Gallimard to new heights. After the experiment, Song showed more desperation towards Gallimard, and Gallimard realized the power he had over such a beautiful eastern woman.
Broken down completely, he lives in the past, mixed in a continued fantasy about Song. In his prison cell, Ive played out the events of my life night after night (Hwang 1257).
He is weak of mind and bankrupt of spirit. He knew Song was a man, but that was of little consequence.
More importantly, is he feels like someone when they are together, wanted, loved, and in control. Songs genuine gender seems a small footnote in the story compared to the huge inadequacy of Gallimards mental state throughout the story. He just wanted the feelings that being in that kind of rapport of that type gave him. It ate him alive, this inability to live in the real world.
His fantasies killed him in the end. His last words on earth were, My name is Rene Gallimard, also known as Madam Butterfly (Hwang 1258).
Masculinity in this novel seems to be, the more women you have in your lifetime, the more you are considered a man. The men in this novel seemed enchanted with the idea of women and the fame they got with friends when it was found out that they were having extra marital affairs. In the Orient and the Western world as well, masculinity was not defined by hard work and a having and striving toward a perfect marriage and family life, it was defined by sex.
Sex with other women than your wife. The Eastern men hated Western men because women were so attracted to the Westerners. Women feared them because they knew they would be dumped as soon as the fun was over. Gallimard quickly came to accept and like his new status with the men, he knew. It seems as if the only way for the men of this novel to become respected in society, was with women and sex.
The Essay on The Role Of Women In The Song Of Roland
The Role of Women in the Song of Roland Women are not mentioned often in the Song of Roland. They appear in only seventeen of almost three hundred laisses. It is because they are included so rarely, however, that the women stand out amidst the throng of male characters and call attention to the areas of the text in which they appear. One of the principle woman characters is Queen Bramimionde, wife ...
This obviously put limitations on men growing emotionally. They were never able to put all there effort into one woman because it just was not considered worthwhile to do so.
