Madame Butterfly Animation

I have always been attracted to the story of "Madame Butterfly," in part because of my love for performing arts, and also because she was the only Asian woman as a main character for a production that I had heard of. When I learned the musical "Miss Saigon," was based off the renowned opera, I was even more intrigued. Especially because the woman famed for playing Kim, the Madame Butterfly based character in "Miss Saigon," was a famous Filipina celebrity, Lea Salonga, whom I looked up to all my life. I have only seen parts of the opera aired late at night on PBS, but I never had the chance to see the opera, "Madame Butterfly," in its duration. This animation was very symbolic in nature and the transitions were phenomenal. I commend the artists who were able to take puppet dolls and create a short video which not only told a summarized version of the tale, but properly reflected the emotions and struggles the main character, Madame Butterfly, felt and endured. Puppet dolls were able to portray the delights of young love, and sexual awakening, and  ultimately the despair of abandonment.

The butterfly that landed on the woman's head symbolizes, love, beauty, sweetness, and innocence. Butterflies also symbolize freedom. After Madame Butterfly and her beau consummate their affair, the butterfly immediately takes flight, as if to foreshadow her lover's eventual departure; however, it also denotes the loss of virginity, which in many societies was frowned upon outside of wedlock. What is also interesting is how we do not hear the woman's voice until after she realizes she is pregnant with her lover's child. This signifies her joy at bearing his child and her excitement to be a new mother. The fish bowl metaphor for reproduction was also very interesting. Not only does a fish's shape slightly resemble male sperm, but the broken fish tank, represents when an expectant mother's water breaks, and labor begins. I thought this was very clever use of symbolism on the artists part. The cord that connected mother and child was not just an umbilical cord, rather it displayed the deep love and connection mothers have with their children. In Madame Butterfly's case, it also expresses that her child has become her reason to live and wait for her lover's return.

During most of the short film, Madame Butterfly dons her lover's sailor hat, until his ship returns and a gust of wind snatches the article away. This is yet another example of foreshadowing. When the hat flew away, it signified to the audience that not only do material possessions like record players and hats fade away, but often times, so does young love, as in the case of Madame Butterfly and the sailor. Upon his arrival, Butterfly expectantly puckers up for a long awaited kiss, but instead, the sailor tears his daughter from her mother and leaves her with nothing. As soon as the child was taken away, the scenery changed, almost to the point of breaking the fourth wall and abandoning all suspension of disbelief. With the child all hope and love is lost, too in Butterfly's life. Her reason to wear flowers in her hair and await her sailor are dashed. She no longer cares for her appearance because the only things that mattered to her are now lost forever. The love she so faithfully counted on has turned cold.

The suicide scene was very interesting. Madame Butterfly, now reduced to her mechanical form, throws away all she has. Her pretty face, her graying her, her ragged clothes. The audience is left with one hopeful scene, a metamorphosis. In letting go of earthly cares and succumbing to her true feelings and nature, Madame Butterfly lived again, in what we the audience hope, was love and happiness. By letting go of her fleeting, undeserving love, she earned her freedom.