Character Analysis of Torvald and Gallimard (Essay Sample)

Author’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course Title
Date of Submission
Character Analysis of Torvald and Gallimard
David Henry uses his satirical play M.Butterfly to document the love life of a French diplomat, Gallimard, who is sent on a government assignment to China. Gallimard is impressed by Chinese songstress Song Liling, and immediately falls in love with ‘her’ not knowing that he is a male dancer dressed as a woman. Gallimard’s illusions prevent him from realizing that Song is a communist spy sent to gather information about the Vietnamese War from himCITATION Fra88 \p 1 \l 1033 (Rich 1). The protagonist faces various challenges that appear similar to those of Ibsen’s character. Despite sharing various similar traits to Torvald, possesses traits that are contradictory to Torvald.
The main similarity between the characters mentioned above is their failure at finding love. In spite of the fact that Gallimard is a respected government representative, he is portrayed as a weak and a highly unsuccessful person. The author depicts Gallimard as an awkward and hapless character that lacks the slightest hint about dating. Specifically, he regrets being a lesser man than his friend Marc who is a ‘ladies’ man’ since he cannot attract the attention of any gorgeous womanCITATION Hwa \p 3 \l 1033 (Hwang 3). Similar to Gallimard, Torvald is a shallow person who appears as a mere foil for Nora. He is an epitome of failure at finding love and one that inspires compassion rather than criticism.
Despite their failures, both Gallimard and Torvald are representations of credible men within the society. The mentioned persons not only stand for the masculine world but the entire society including social and legal ethicsCITATION Dor90 \p 15 \l 1033 (Kondo 15). Overall, Torvald and Gallimard are chauvinistic who devalue women. Gallimard is condescending towards Asian women and requires Song to be a model Asian lady ‘Butterfly’ who is shy, docile, and doggedly devoted to their partner. Correspondingly, Torvald regards Nora as a sex motif with girlish and juvenile behavior. He maintains sexual fantasies towards Nora by dressing her as a Capri fisher girl and forces her to dance to stimulate his sexual desires.
Torvald and Gallimard share various characteristics as mentioned above, but despite this, they portray dissimilar personalities. While Torvald is brazen and keen on maintaining public appearances rather than of inner truth, Gallimard is insecure and does not know how to handle himself CITATION Bas13 \l 1033 (Baseer, Alvi and Zafran). Torvald is typified as a loathsome person accredited to his personal debauchery. Besides, he is arrogant and sexually belligerent towards his wife. Conversely, Gallimard is miserable and stroppy without masculine power. His masculinity only comes into play after he falls in love with Song. Furthermore, he is not egotistical or sexually domineering compared to Torvald and his Western peers.
Torvald and Gallimard are exemplifications of the social evils and rot present within the male-dominated society. It is their perverted and unscrupulous behaviors that ma