Madame Butterfly

Flowers are an important symbol throughout the opera and stand for love and beauty. When Butterfly sees Pinkerton’s ship in the harbor, she and Suzuki put all the flowers from the garden in the house. The mass of flowers shows Butterfly’s unwavering love for Pinkerton. Butterfly says, “Roses shall adorn / The threshold [...] Lilies and roses let us scatter [...] In handfuls let us scatter / Violets and mimosa / And sprays of sweetest roses, / Petals of every flower” (112). This listing of flowers alludes to another famous scene about a scorned woman scattering flowers—Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who also talks specifically about violets. Both Ophelia and Butterfly have scenes with flowers before dying by suicide and, in this way, Butterfly’s suicide is further romanticized.

Butterfly is compared to flowers repeatedly, often through the use of simile (comparison), which serves to emphasize her beauty and innocence. Several similes compare the white color of clothes, flowers, and snow. On their wedding night, Pinkerton notes how Butterfly is “dressed in white like a lily” (92), and when Butterfly and Suzuki decorate the house in flowers in preparation for Pinkerton’s return, Butterfly says, “Shake that cherry tree till every flower / White as snow, flutters down” (110).