SOURCE: Rosen, Carol. “The Structure of Illusion in Genet's The Balcony.” Modern Drama 35, no. 4 (December 1992): 513-19.

In the following essay, Rosen appraises the image of the brothel as a venue for political, philosophical, and symbolic commentary in The Balcony.

Although in fact a brothel is more likely to resemble a nondescript rooming-house than an ornate pleasure dome, popular literature favors fancy rather than reality. And the brothel, an institution of tabooed sexuality, is an especially inviting premise, promising to substantiate forbidden dreams. So in fiction, heroes have been regularly seduced into submission and then metamorphosed into creatures of degenerate lust by vile temptresses (who occasionally sport hearts of gold). The Circean nighttown episode of Ulysses may be seen as the apotheosis of this fictive standard, for in Joyce's novel the brothel suggests a modern sexual mythology.

On the stage, too, the brothel and its residents have been depicted...