Ques- The Bishop (to the mirror): The majesty, the dignity, the light. . . . . . . . . . . . . The fact that the Bishop precedes me. Do I make myself clear . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . You tramp . . .
Comment on the Bishop’s speech in the context of this speech being uttered/made as apart of role played in Irma’s brothel.
Ans- The character of Bishop represent the heads of church, in substance with a penchant for dressing up in sumptuous costumes to play out their preferred roles. Bishop have required the real powers that these figure represent but only because the former Bishop have been routed by revolution. Genet comments on the institution of the church through the role-acting of the Bishop. The visitors in the brothel’s studio dose not remain an individual but represent the Bishop who has religious power which is perhaps the oldest established power. The visitor is an ordinary man but wants to live his fantasy of power and sex. The visitors enacting the Bishop does not want to be real Bishop. We are here referring client as a visitor because Irma demand respect for the visitors. “I’ve told you Carmen, I don’t like that and I demand respect for the visitors. VI-SI-TORS! I don’t allow myself- my own self – even to refer them as client”(page-25) Visitors chief concern is with the image of Bishop and he wishes to enact that role in solitudes, for appearance indicates that people are watching a fantasy. “And I wish to be Bishop in Solitude, For appearance alone-“(page-9)
The notion of the church is direct result of the existence of the sinner. The Bishop, therefore is not searching for truth or values, but trying to locate the evil and create a moral framework in society. The misery of the sinner woman is the source of power of the religious authority. “And in order to destroy all the function I want to cause a scandal and fed you up, you slut, you bitch, you troll up, you trump. . . (Page-9) In the clever articulation of his speeches, a when he enumerates the accessories that from his costume: “However, bishop that is a mode of being. It is a weight. A burden, MITRE, lace, golden, glittering fabric . . .
The bishop(to the mirroe): the majesty, the dignity . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . .. . . . … . . .. . . . . . . . No more, good heavens ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . make myself clear, mirrors, glided image, ornate . . . . . . . . Eleswhere this freedome of language spills over into a lasting of alliterative synonymus, as where the bishop exclaims ‘and to destroy all function I want to create a scandal, destroy all function I want to create a scandal, and shaft you slut,. You slapper and slattern. . . . . . In the bishop’s long soliquioy
“the majesty, the dignity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ypou tramp . . . .
Clearly, the profanity of the Bishop,s language in such instance is not divorced from the social role of his personality. In fact the social role enhance the excitement of commonplace linguistic profanity not only that, language also becomes an accomplice in inverting the real, by enhancing the nature of illusion. Illusion and fantasy are the important and prominent aspect of Genet’s play “The Balcony”. The play opens up the possibility of a dialectical interaction between the celebrated values of “real” society and the immoral world of Madame Irma’s “house of illusion”. In the fantasy world of the brothel, role playing as the theatrical device, reveals as in the mirror that the “real” world is a façade. The above speech of the bishop, was a great examples of role – playing and in the above speech, Bishops speaks to the mirror. Genet’s use of mirrors in the play is significant. Mirrors give the idea of illusion. Mirrors reflect that which is not real. They highlight that illusory aspect of life. In the brothel, role-playing allows the women to move around the idea of a fixed identity as prostitutes who as a women play out the role of a thief or the sinful woman. In the speech of a bishop, woman plays the role of a sinful woman. The visitor take delight in the role of the Bishop. In the first scene the bishop depands on the sinner, played by aprostitute. The bishop, in particular, indulges himself in this manner entering into long solioques before the mirror, taking obvious pleasure. The primary theme in the Blcony is the tension between the illusion that rule insude and the brothel and the intrusion of reality that rules on the outside. Mirror fulfill the twin purpose of being the apparatus as well as props in the elaborate setup, providing fgor the grartification.The play glorifies the images. It mocks out our society considers “to be “
More important than “to do”
Sources: - “Brothel” in jean genets the balcony- payal Khanna * “THE BALCONY” –Jean genet(book) * Jean Genet’s The Balcony :true image and the false spectacle- Gray White