Madame Butterfly (story)

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Madame Butterfly is a short story by the American writer John Luther Long .

Emergence

Long's short story was based on a story about a teahouse girl named "Cho-san", which Sarah Jane Correll told during her stay in Japan by her "usual shopkeeper" in Nagasaki and her brother, the American lawyer and writer John Luther Long, initially in a letter and then personally communicated on Correll's return to Philadelphia in 1897: While living in Nagasaki, Jennie heard of the event that would later become the story of Madame Butterfly. At the time of her return to Philadelphia in 1897, Jennie talked about it to her brother John Luther Long [...] From Japan Jennie sent letters to her brother [...]. During her stay at his house, Jennie told John Luther Long the story of the "teahouse-girl" whom she called Cho-san [sic] . "

In his literary work, Long wanted to use the - in his opinion - reliable sources of his sister to create an authentic and convincing narrative construct and not a fictional composition.

After Long's revised version was published, Correll gave a number of readings in 1931 at which she is said to have recited the same story that she had already shared with her brother. For the period between Correll's return in 1897 and her readings in Tokyo in 1931 , three versions of this story exist and have also been published there. An article appeared on March 13, 1931 in the Japanese-language daily Jiji Shimpō. Two more articles followed in the Japan Times and Japan Magazine, the latter being the revised version of the March 15, 1931 article, which Sarah Jane Correll personally wrote and published. The following excerpt is the printed version in Japan Magazine: " On the hill opposite ours lived a tea-house girl; her name was Cho-san [sic]. Miss Butterfly. She was so sweet and delicate that everyone was in love with her. In time we learned that she had a lover. That was not so strange, for all tea-house girls have lovers, if they can get and hold them. Cho-san's young man was quite nice, but very temperamental, of moody , lonely disposition. One evening there was quite a sensation when it was learned that poor Cho-san, and her baby, had been deserted. The man had promised to return at a certain time; had even arranged a signal so that Cho-san would know when his ship had come in; but the little girl-wife awaited that signal in vain. Many an hour and many a long night did she peer from her shoji over the lovely harbor, but to no purpose: he never returned. " "

Preface by Long: "Prelude"

On August 27, 1903, at the request of his publisher, John Luther Long wrote a foreword containing information on the genesis and distribution of the short story Madame Butterfly as well as its emotional address and adaptation, on the one hand as a play by the American playwright and director David Belasco and on the other as an opera should include the Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini . Long's foreword, known as the "Prelude", was not well received by the readership and urged readers to ignore it and form their own opinion about the short story. A majority of the readership actually showed sympathy, even pity, for the protagonist Madame Butterfly. When asked by the readership whether the author himself could muster feelings for his narrative character Cho-Cho-San, he replied that his emotions in the chronological order were opposite to the emotions of the protagonist in the narrative. According to Long, however, the main character's emotional state increased progressively from readership to readership.

With regard to the genesis of the short story, John Luther Long makes no statement in the preface. He tries to trace the origin of the story back to neurological processes and religious-philosophical theses. Long comments on the style of the short story and the effect of the protagonist. First of all, the author sees in Madame Butterfly a literary "rebirth" of the narrative character Cho-Cho-San, who one has to accept as a humane creature with flaws and not as a perfect hero figure, as other writers and readers would have liked to have imagined. John Luther Long openly acknowledges the "literary errors" that have existed in Madame Butterfly since the beginning .

content

The American naval officer, Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, is stationed near Nagasaki with his comrade Sayre. On the deck of the warship, for lack of sexual pleasure, the officers discuss the Japanese institution of "temporary marriage," which Pinkerton, on Sayre's advice, intends to use upon arrival.

In Nagasaki: Cho-Cho-San, a samurai daughter, is sold as a child by her grandmother to a tea house, as the family is killed by the suicide of the head of the family and samurai warrior who hara-wo after the defeat of the Satsuma uprising due to the loss of honor -kiri had fallen into poverty. By selling the child, the family hopes to remedy their financial misery. The girl has to give up her old identity with the employment, she is given the nickname Madame Butterfly and from now on she is in the service of the tea house.

In Nagasaki, Pinkerton can be found with the help of the Nakodo [= jap. Matchmaker] Goro, who has business connections with tea and mediation houses, to mediate to a potential candidate. Goro selects Madame Butterfly's beauty for his American client and takes the necessary preparations for the wedding. Not only a marriage contract is concluded between the parties Pinkerton and Goro, but also, through the procurement of the apartment, an open-ended rental contract, which would be immediately canceled at the end of the month in the event of a mere delay in renting. In order to cover up his real intentions regarding the institution "temporary marriage", Pinkerton pretends to Madame Butterfly that the marriage was consummated under American law and withholds the option of termination at the end of each month.

When the American moves into the common household, the measures begin: Madame Butterfly's Japanese family is excluded by putting locks in and on the apartment. The following demands are made of the Japanese:

  • 1. The Asian woman has to address the officer as "Mr. BF Pinkerton".
  • 2. American is spoken in the house.
  • 3. Pinkerton emphatically motivates them to become self-employed at home.
  • 4. Madame Butterfly's religious practice is refused, and instead the Japanese woman is supposed to go to the Christian mission church and listen to the beliefs there.

Pinkerton's inhumane dealings with his wife finally prompt the Japanese family to pay the American a visit to make him aware of his "upbringing methods". During this visit, the officer's family is successfully influenced with alcohol and tobacco and Butterfly's family members are drawn to his side.

On their wedding night, Pinkerton and his "tenant" father a child. The marriage is short-lived. When Pinkerton's departure for the United States, the American promised to return "when the robins breed again" . The Japanese takes his promise seriously because she hopes for a future life with Pinkerton in America. The officer leaves money on his departure so that the rent can still be paid, he does not file for divorce.

After Pinkerton's departure, Madame Butterfly gives birth to a son who is initially said to be "Trouble", but when his father returns, "Joy". A few years have now passed and Madame Butterfly and her housemaid Suzuki realize that the money is no longer enough for the rent. Suzuki doubts Pinkerton's return, while Madame Butterfly holds on to his promise and tells the housemaid her visions of Pinkerton's return. Even Nakodo, who learned of the officer's departure and interpreted it as an intention to divorce, does not believe in Pinkerton's return. Instead he sees the possibility of referring Madame Butterfly to one of his new clients: the Japanese Prince Yamadori Okyo. Goro therefore pays the Asian girl a visit to make an appointment for an "appraisal". During this visit, during which Nakodo sees Madame Butterfly's child for the first time, the legitimacy of the "temporary marriage" is discussed.

The prince and Madame Butterfly meet. Yamadori tries in vain to use gifts to motivate the Japanese, who considers herself a "real American", to accept his marriage proposal. Even the demotion of the child he undertakes does not change their rejection.

The three visits that Madame Butterfly then pays to the American consul Sharpless (the so-called "consular visits") take place in the context of intercultural marriage: with specific questions, the protagonist hopes to dispel the doubts of her compatriots (Suzuki, Goro and Yamadori) can. However, based on the descriptions, the consul concludes that the officer had used Madame Butterfly for his selfish purposes. Sharpless therefore advises Madame Butterfly to accept Prince Yamadori's marriage proposal "in her favor". But because the consul has already informed the Asian of Pinkerton's return, she sees this as the last glimmer of hope for a return and is taking the necessary preparatory measures with the housemaid Suzuki. Indeed, through the binoculars, she can watch the warship enter port; however, the officer's arrival does not initially occur. It was only by chance that Madame Butterfly saw her husband a few days later together with a blonde woman on a passenger steamer.

The Japanese woman pays the consul one last visit to get an explanation for the incident. At the consulate, Sharpless hands her an envelope with greetings on Pinkerton's behalf. The consul reminds her of her previous request, which she originally formulated as a joke during her visit in the presence of the consul, to tell Pinkerton of her intention that she had gone away with the child to marry Prince Yamadori. The American consul Sharpless now uses Madame Butterfly's request as a white lie: he pretends to have told Pinkerton of the Japanese woman's request upon his arrival, whereupon the officer left Japan in anger. In order to convincingly convey this lie to the Asian woman, Sharpless points to the documents on his desk and tries to make Madame Butterfly credible that they were written by him. However, the protagonist saw through the lie of the consul.

At that moment, Pinkerton's wife, Adelaide, enters to send her husband a telegram; Content of the telegram: she has already met the child with the housemaid Suzuki, but Madame Butterfly has not. But she will pay the Japanese woman a visit the next day. The two women meet in which Adelaide (Pinkerton's American newlyweds) forgives the Asian woman for falling in love with her because of her job. Adelaide therefore calls the Japanese a "toy".

Madame Butterfly then leaves the consulate and plans - like her father once did - her suicide out of a loss of honor. At the neck she puts the dagger of the former samurai warrior. Suzuki, the housemaid, had already suspected her mistress' intention to commit suicide and therefore pushed the child into the room. The child's screams stop the Japanese woman from doing what she does; the wound is treated immediately by Suzuki. When Adelaide wants to visit Madame Butterfly the next morning, she finds the house empty.

literature

  • Georg Gerry Tremmel: Madame Butterfly (1898). The literary concept of the American short story in a historical context 2007, ISBN 978-3-8325-1076-3 .
  • RIJ, Jan van: Madame Butterfly. Japonisme, Puccini, & the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San. Berkeley / California: Stone Bridge Press, 2001.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Luther Long: Madam Butterfly . Translated from the American into German by Georg Gerry Tremmel. Berlin: Kulturmaschinen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-9402-7424-3
  2. ↑ (RIJ 2001: 58)
  3. ↑ (RIJ 2001: 60)