Critical Thinking on M. Butterfly and Oleanna Plays

Introduction

The plays, "M. Butterfly" and "Oleanna" offer great exposition regarding how individuals and groups use deceptive and manipulative techniques to change others and force them to surrender to their own beliefs. The motive behind these processes could be the desire to explore their political ambition and desires. In both plays, characters such as Gallimard and Carol are observed to constitute the major preys of some individuals and groups, who use them to fulfill and address their political and ideological advantages. This paper will, therefore, provide a discussion of how the life experiences and the statuses of both Gallimard and Carol rendered them easy targets for individuals who wanted to manipulate them. In the paper, I argue that the life experiences of the characters increased their susceptibility to traps laid by certain individuals who wanted to take advantage of their situations.

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Part One

M. Butterfly is a play that is based around the idea of masculinity. Since immemorial, men have been wrongfully viewed as being superior to their female counterparts. Observably, any submissive feeling of a man would prompt him to find the appropriate ways of feeling masculine again. These feelings contribute to a tremendous sense of their self-esteem. A significant example of this is observed through the analysis of the life and experiences that Rene Gallimard. As a protagonist in the play, the author uses him to address the vital theme of masculinity and how the perception of dominance has been portrayed. Arguably, the whole of Gallimard's experiences up to the point he met Song increased his vulnerability to a trap that had been laid by Song a long time ago.

For this reason, he succumbs to the drug-like pleasure of his new self. I strongly agree with this argument. Because of the strong desire for masculinity that Gallimard demonstrated, he became extremely vulnerable. His life, in addition to the plot of the play, constitutes critical products of his constant desire for masculinity and the power or authority over other characters in the play. In my view, the inner struggle as portrayed in this case about the insecurities and the lack of masculinity constitutes a dominant driving force of the plot and eventually makes Gallimard the Song's ultimate prey.

Gallimard's insecurity constitutes his major downfall in the play. As seen in the play, the deliberate omission to be included in significant child group events facilitated his insecurity and took a toll on his entire self-esteem. In the book, it is he expresses his regrets that he was named least likely to be invited into the party in grade school. While it is evident that his outward appearance and title may have undergone a significant transformation over many years, Gallimard's self-remained was damaged and disrupted. Ideally, his insecurities and the sensitivities that he experienced throughout his years considerably pushed him towards Liling Song. His desires are further fuelled by the fact that his wife is old and therefore appears entirely unappealing for him. The family's ability to conceive a child is described as Gallimard's fault as the wife believes that her body has no issues or defects that could otherwise prevent her from conceiving and bearing a child for the family. This kind of insecurity is observed whereby Gallimard was tremendously insecure before he met Song, but this fear ends temporarily after meeting her. This is based on the fact that Song finally makes him feel masculine and confident about himself.

These circumstances propel him to start a relationship with her. Gallimard gets an opportunity to be introduced to Song at Opera House while in Beijing. Although the audience later finds that Song is a man in disguise, he is portrayed as a woman. The interest that Gallimard later demonstrates towards her and the relationship that emerges between the two jointly contributes to his eventual downfall. Invariably, it becomes transparent that Gallimard's insecurity about his self-renders him an easy target for Song. As part of her plot, Song succeeds to manipulate Gallimard's affection with the aim of acting as a spy for the Communist Party in China. His move to denounce himself as a man and a spy in court makes Gallimard reject him completely. In his view, Song believes that his performance as a perfect woman was a part of his acting profession but fails to mention whether or not he developed affection towards Gallimard in the process.

Part Two

In the play Oleanna, it can be argued that Carol who is one of the two main characters in the play is portrayed as a subject of manipulation because of her condition and the helpless desire to succeed in her exams. From the dialogues in the play, the readers can gain more information about her. As a student in a well-reputed learning institution, Carol is enrolled in one of John's classes. However, despite such enrolment, she struggles in the course and decides to seek guidance on how to pass the course. The discussion between John and her initially takes a direction towards how Carol could adopt good strategies to help her improve her performance and finally pass her exams. I believe that The Group had good intentions to help her better her results by instructing her to join them. However, she becomes an object of manipulation after meeting John. In other words, she is not helped eventually,

From the first meeting, it becomes evident that Carol presents numerous frustrations she undergoes and links them to her socio-economic background, her gender, and her relative lack of intelligence. She is subjected to huge oppression with learning and feels that he is unable to accomplish the various goals that she may desire to achieve. At this point, it is undeniable that John, a professor, could use her condition to take advantage of her. In the wake of her meeting with John, she decides to join "The Group," which is an unnamed political party that consists of disadvantaged women in academia. The group gives her a new conceptual framework about how to go about how to embrace good academic and learning strategies to improve and pass the courses. However. Carol proceeds to abuse the opportunity given to her.

Instead of focusing on her academic ambitions, Carol, through the Group, becomes tremendously manipulative, intelligent, and a woman who strongly does everything she can to develop her political agenda. Earlier in the play, she is portrayed as a naive schoolgirl who only wanted to focus on her education and success in the field of academia. However, the external force created by The Group considerably manipulates her to embark on her journey to advance her political correctness at the expense of John's profession and life. The turning point in the play is where John promised Carol an A grade if she agrees to come to his office for guidance. At this point, it is undeniable that it is J0hn who had all the powers and Carol was tremendously helpless. Paradoxically, John began losing his power immediately; he started helping her. His good deeds and intentions eventually turn against him, and this offers sufficient proof that he is indeed the protagonist and the positive character in Oleanna play. Although he is an experienced person with high academic rank, he is blackmailed by Carol of sexual harassment, but he refuses to accept the allegation and chooses to stand by his beliefs and what he believes is right. Carol eventually fails to achieve her ambitions through the blackmail as well as the academic performance she had earlier sought from John. Had she not been manipulated by the Group, she could have achieved her academic ambitions through the help that John had promised her.

Part 3

The fanaticism and radicalization are some of the common phenomena that have got roots into many societies social fabrics. Fundamentally, the fanaticism provides a great resemblance of the situation of an individual who looks keyhole from a dark room into the external world and feels that the world is limited to what he can observe through the little hole. It further involves acting within a narrow perspective in a tremendously distorted mechanism or way and eventually act upon such distortion. The fanaticism has therefore been linked to various things such as religion, political ideologies, and the philosophical principles. Through radicalization, thus, individuals have been brainwashed to enter into believing or supporting certain fundamental principles and beliefs related to the religions, political parties, and the ideologies promoted by nations, organizations, or people across the world. One can, therefore, arrive at such an irrational and immoral belief by rejecting the fundamentals of the religions, political parties, nations, and organizations. The individuals who are under extreme pressure, poverty, and helplessness can, therefore, receive the salvation doctrines.

The majority of the nations in the world are attempting to outpower others through forcefully inculcating or implanting their belief and ideologies into them. Various western countries such as the United States and Britain have been observed to express their desires to control the world, including the nations such as Russia and China. The two plays Oleanna and M. Butterfly offer an excellent exposition of how fanaticism and radicalization can get their way into society.

The themes of colonialism and imperialism significantly depict the aspects of political fanaticism in M. Butterfly. In the play, for instance, Gallimard is a man who is obsessed about the East, and this is evident whereby he looks for a Chinese woman to submit to his will and conduct his bidding. As a French Diplomat who works in China's capital, his operation is imperialistic and therefore through radicalization wants to spread the political influence of the western powers to nations in the East. His subjugation significantly coincides with his rise as the agent of the French government. However, his wrongdoing makes him be sent home. The colonial and imperialistic campaigns in parallel with his sexual and fanatical beliefs that the west can uncontrollably out power the east do not succeed.

Such fanaticism usually takes the direction of deception, threats, and manipulation for one party to advance its political or ideological agenda (Sim 34). In the play, Oleanna for instance, "The Group" considerably manipulates Carol to embark on her journey to advance her political correctness and agenda at the expense of John's profession. It becomes evident that he was being used by "the Group" for its purposes and gaining its political agenda. This is also another vital instance of radicalization.

Conclusion

Undeniably, therefore, the two plays are critical in providing greater insights regarding the issues that happen in the current dispensation within the religious and political arena. Many nations are utilizing the deceptive and manipulative ways to subdue and overpower other nations. Much of these has been observed through the influence of the west on the east through forceful imposition of religious and political principles.

Works Cited

Hwang, David Henry. M. butterfly. Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1988.

Mamet, David. Oleanna. Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1993.

Sim, Stuart. Fundamentalist world: The new dark age of dogma. Icon Press, 2004.