Questions:
Act One:
1.How does the play begin? How does the writing technique affect our understanding of the play?
2.Why is Rene Gallimard in a prison cell at the beginning of Act One?
3.What is the setting of Scene 2, Act One? Why do the people mock at Gallimard?
4.What is the theme of Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly”?
5.What is the image of the Perfect Woman in Gallimard’s mind?
6.What role in Madame Butterfly does Gallimard most identify with?
7.Under what circumstances does Gallimard meet Song Liling?
8.How does Song criticize the stereotype of the submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man?
9.Does Song think that a white man can judge Asian culture objectively? Why?
10.How does Gallimard feel about Song Liling?
Act Three:
11.What is the setting for Act Three?
12.How does Song Liling explain his life in Paris?
13.Why was Song able to dupe Gallimarad into thinking that he is a woman?
14.Is Song sure that Gallimard never knew that he was a man?
15.What happens after Song strips?
16.How does Gallimard regress back into a world of fantasy?
17.What role in the Puccini’s opera does Song take by reciting the lines “Butterfly? Butterfly?” to end the play?