Colonial Conceptions of Femininity: Analyzing Agnes and Song in David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly

David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly portrays the characters of Agnes and Song Liling as opposing forces that reveal the complex intersections of gender, race, and colonial power. This paper examines the contrasting roles of Agnes and Song as representations of the "real woman" and the "ideal woman", respectively. The paper also explores how their relationships with Gallimard expose the fragility of his colonial fantasies. Gallimard's obsession with Song is rooted in his Western stereotypical view of the East as submissive, exotic, and idealized. Agnes represents the grounded reality that does not fit in such constructed fantasies. This challenges the larger colonial myth of power and dominance and emphasizes how Gallimard's illusions fall apart. By focusing on Agnes and Song as contrasting forces, this paper argues how Hwang deconstructs the racial and gendered stereotypes often projected in arts and literature, which later define cultural identities, revealing the realities hidden beneath the fantasies of colonialism. Through this lens, M. Butterfly offers a critique of the politics of gender and race in Western perceptions of the East.