main concerns. Zambinella is a castrato. Because women were not allowed on stage in most of the Papal States, castrati regularly played the parts of women. The tradition of the castrati never extended to France, and when Sarrasine arrives in Italy and meets Zambinella, he does not know about it. Because Zambinella has the voice of a woman Sarrasine assumes La Zambinella is a woman. La Zambinella suggests that her womanhood might be in question, but Sarrasine is too enthralled with Zambinella as the perfect woman to pay any attention. When Sarrasine finally learns Zambinella is a castrato, he first denies the possibility, then tries to kill Zambinella, upon which he is himself killed. Critics point out that Sarrasine may fear a kind of contagion of castration, or may feel that manhood in general or the division between men and women is threatened by possibility of castration. The novella ends with Mme de Rochefide and the narrator's condemning the castrato tradition as barbaric. Homosexuality Homosexuality is a common theme found in many of Honoré de Balzac's works, for example Illusions perdues (1837–43). In Sarrasine, we meet Zambinella, a seemingly beautiful woman whom Sarrasine admires, but who turns out to be castrato. Sarrasine, who took Zambinella to be his ideal woman, is deeply distressed when he learns this and tries to kill Zambinella. One possible explanation for Sarrasine's extreme reaction is that he fears that his love of La Zambinella is a mark of homosexuality. Sarrasine's reaction, then, can be seen as an attempt to protect his heterosexuality. Zambinella does, in fact, have a partner: the cardinal. In Sarrasine, the cardinal is Zambinella's "protector", which means that Zambinella would be the complementary role of "mignon". Barthes refers to Zambinella as "mignon" as it is used in French court society, where it means the homosexual lover, or "pet", of a man in power, in this case the cardinal, the "protector". Narrative strategies Balzac's use of a frame story is the most significant narrative strategy in Sarrasine. In the frame story, an unnamed, male narrator tells the story in the first person to Mme de Rochefide, his guest at a ball. They come into close contact with a mysterious old man and see a beautiful painting. The narrator promises to tell Mme de Rochefide the story of the painting and the old man. The body of the novella and the framed story that