51 pages • 1-hour read
M. Butterfly
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Act IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act III, Scene 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, antigay bias, racism, gender discrimination, suicidal ideation, and death by suicide.
The play jumps forward to 1986. Song has finished removing his disguise, revealing a man in a suit. Song tells a judge, as well as the audience, how he arrived in Paris in 1970 without any money and convinced Gallimard to take him in with the baby.
Until 1985, Song participated in demonstrations to maintain his cover. When Gallimard took a job as a courier carrying high-level government documents, he took pictures of them for Song to pass to the Chinese embassy. Song isn’t sure whether Gallimard understood what Song was doing with the documents. Throughout this time, however, Song tried to ensure that Gallimard never discovered his gender during sex. Song explains how he distracted Gallimard by telling him things he wanted to hear in bed and by taking advantage of Western men’s internalized mentality of objectification regarding people from the East, using Gallimard’s inability to see Song as a man because Western men associate the East with exoticism and femininity.
Song’s political theory annoys the judge, so he asks Song directly whether Gallimard was ever aware of his gender. Song says he doesn’t know because he never asked.
Act III, Scene 2 Summary
The death song from Madame Butterfly blares over the scene. Gallimard crawls to the costume and wig that Song discarded, searching for his Butterfly. He insults Song for giving a shallow testimony, which only adds to Gallimard’s shame. He reasserts the soundness of his own testimony and distances himself from everything that Song is saying in the witness box. Song pauses his testimony to call out Gallimard for taking such a long time to return to the opera house where they met. The scene shifts away from the courtroom, returning to the opera house.
Song tries to get Gallimard to admit that he bent to Song’s will. When Gallimard softly concedes, Song goes further, urging Gallimard to admit that he still wants him. When Gallimard refuses to say, Song teases him. Gallimard is repulsed and outraged by Song’s cruelty. Song promises to be nice and offers to finally strip for him.
Gallimard urges Song to stop taking his clothes off. Song tells him to stop looking. Gallimard keeps looking, even as he continues to plead with Song to stop. Finally, Gallimard admits that Song is a man but adds that he ignored the truth because he wanted to savor the pleasure of their relationship. Song dramatically drops his underwear.
Gallimard’s cries turn into laughter. His reaction confuses Song, so Gallimard explains that he’s laughing at the absurdity of wasting his life on another man. This upsets Song, who tries to assert that he’s more than just another man. To convince him, he puts on Butterfly’s robes again and dances around. Then he lets Gallimard touch the skin on his arm. Gallimard agrees that it feels familiar. Song makes Gallimard close his eyes and touch Song’s face. Gallimard recognizes Song as his Butterfly but points out Song’s mistake: He revealed his true identity to Gallimard when the person Gallimard loved was the lie.
Gallimard sends Song away, claiming that he has a date to meet Butterfly. Song urges Gallimard to come with him, but he refuses, still choosing the fantasy. Song is disappointed that Gallimard would revert to such a masculine instinct, choosing artifice over the truth. Gallimard argues that he has more imagination that Song gives him credit for. Song spitefully leaves Gallimard behind.
Act III, Scene 3 Summary
The scene returns to Gallimard’s prison cell in the present. Abandoning his search for the right way to tell his story, Gallimard now declares that he has found a way to return to the world of fantasy where Butterfly lives. Dancers come and help Gallimard put on the discarded Butterfly kimono.
As he dresses up, he declares his vision of a world where perfect Oriental women sacrifice themselves for Western men. He publicly claims his ignorance about Song’s gender, but privately wrestles with the knowledge of the truth. This truth includes the understanding that another man cruelly deceived him in exchange for his love. Love distorted Gallimard’s vision until he saw the woman in himself.
The dancers give Gallimard a knife as he quotes Madame Butterfly, claiming that it’s better to die an honorable death than to live a dishonorable life. He declares that Butterfly’s love is more powerful than anything except for the sin of loving a man. Gallimard then declares that he has found Butterfly and introduces himself as Madame Butterfly. As the “Love Duet” from Madame Butterfly blares over the scene, Gallimard dies by suicide. The play ends on Song, who looks down on Gallimard and calls out, “Butterfly? Butterfly?”
Act III Analysis
The play’s final act wrests control of the story from Gallimard’s hands. He was trying to present a version of his life story that would convince the audience to empathize with him and take his side. However, Gallimard’s insistence on telling things his way has proven him an unreliable narrator. This is evident in the fact that Song’s gender, which the play has consistently alluded to, is never explicitly revealed until Act III. Gallimard was clearly aware of Song’s identity on some level but was unable to acknowledge it. Therefore, he tries to cheat the audience into believing his false narrative, which is why Song steps in to finally correct the record and ensure that the narrative makes sense.
Once Song takes over the narrative, the play assumes a different tone. Song relates his experiences with arrogance and swagger, as if to suggest that he isn’t there simply to indict Gallimard but also to brag about how he outsmarted Gallimard for much longer than anyone would have anticipated. In the witness box, Song’s revelations include a keen insight that explicates The Intersection of Gender and Politics as a themes. According to Song, “The West thinks of itself as masculine […] so the East is feminine […] The West believes the East, deep down, wants to be dominated—because a woman can’t think for herself” (83). This accurately reflects how Gallimard engaged Song when he saw him as Butterfly. Every transgression Gallimard committed began with the underlying assumption that Song wanted Gallimard to free her from her world.
At this point in the play, arguing that Gallimard wouldn’t have known that men commonly play women’s roles in the Peking Opera because his work would have required knowing as much as possible about Chinese culture and society, especially well-known cultural practices like women being barred from stage roles. The more important takeaway is that Gallimard admits to valuing the fantasy of Butterfly over the reality of Song’s gender. The moment Song strips down, fulfilling Gallimard’s long-delayed request, he destroys the fantasy and causes Gallimard to fall out of love with him. The play thus ends by underscoring The Selfishness of Love and Blurring the Line Between Fantasy and Reality as themes.
If anything, Gallimard is attracted to his own ego and the vision it constructed. In the final scene, Gallimard identifies himself as Butterfly because Butterfly is the ultimate form of his fantasy, which only he can fulfill. To return to Butterfly, he must embody her, and because the character of Butterfly chooses to preserve her honor through death, Gallimard chooses to do the same, knowing that he can no longer redeem his honor as himself. Gallimard’s death represents a final surrender, not to the reality of his situation but to the power of fantasy.
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