Nov 18, 2008

M. Butterfly | Act III, scenes 1-3: Summary and Analysis

New Characters
Judge: The man who oversees Gallimard’s trial.

Summary
Song’s transformation, which began at the end of the last act, is complete. No longer the Butterfly, he is dressed in a well-cut suit and is in a Paris courthouse. It is now 1986, the year in which the French espionage scandal mentioned in the playwright’s notes hit the press.

The audience is finally treated to Song’s interpretation of events; the action is no longer flashbacks in Gallimard’s mind, but actual courtroom testimony. Song tells the judge how he came to Paris, how Gallimard...