20 pages • 40 minutes read
Jean GenetThe Balcony
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Mirrors
Three mirrors appear in most scenes of The Balcony. In a setting like a brothel, mirrors would often have an erotic significance, but in the Grand Balcony, they are more significantly a prop to further distort what is true. Every client, and every prostitute, has the opportunity to see themselves reflected. But they are reflected while costumed, performing fantasies, from three separate angles. A mirror is meant to show people an accurate depiction of what they look like. The mirrors in this play do not even perform this basic function. They are another tool of deception.
Titles
Great emphasis is placed on the titles of the Bishop, the General, the Hero, the Queen, the Judge, the Thief, and the Envoy. By adopting an official title, each client is able to envision himself as being nothing but the office represented by the title. What people actually are in the play is less important than what they are called. This is typical of any ideological movement. An ideology is a partial story that acts as if it is a whole truth. The characters in The Balcony use their titles to escape responsibility and reality. A man acting as the Bishop is not responsible if he does anything an actual bishop would not do. A man acting as the General is expected to give orders, or kill, but has no responsibility for determining situations in which killing would be out of character.
Ritual
Each scene in which a client visits a prostitute is depicted as a ritual. The initiate is costumed and then a transgressive scenario is acted out. The scenarios often involve punishments, atonement, and self-inflicted degradation or overblown humility. After each scenario concludes, the costumes are removed and payment is received. The scenes are as highly structured as any religious ordinance or governmental process. Ritual and routine are meant to provide stability and comfort, which is in keeping with Irma’s remark that the men come to them for consolation. But when the rituals take place within an unstable environment, the only thing they can reinforce is continued chaos.
