Salome by Oscar Wilde

1340 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay religiousity

Salome by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s gruesome and controversial play begs and important question. Who is Salome? In the bible this woman is not even given a name. She is the daughter of Herodias who dances for the pleasure of her stepfather, Herod. Perhaps the very fact that she remains unnamed is part of the mystery and problem that is Salome. There was no need to name this type of woman in patriarchal Christian religion. Yet, Salome’s story continues to inspire and terrify both her champions and her harshest critics.

In writing Salome Wilde gives this figure both an identity and a desire. But just what does this identity and subsequent desire represent? Throughout the play Salome is subjected to the male gaze. Both the Young Syrian and Herod continually look at her. They are both warned not to do so. The Page of Herodias tells the Young Syrian, “Why do you look at her? You must not look at her…Something terrible may happen.” Herod is similarly warned by his wife, “You must not look at her! You are always looking at her!” Aside from their own desires, why would these two characters believe that looking at Salome is so dangerous? This could be an acknowledgement of the power of looking and the subsequent power that Salome gains from being looked at.

Scopophilia is not only the pleasure and power of looking, but also the pleasure and power of being looked at. Salome is aware of this type of power. She says, “Why does the Tetrarch look at me all the while with his mole’s eyes under his shaking eyelids? It is strange that the husband of my mother looks at me like that. I know not what it means. Of a truth I know it too well.” Salome realizes that Herod is viewing her as a sexual o...

... middle of paper ...

...y? Whatever the reason Salome is destroyed by men immediately after she receives the satisfaction of kissing Jokanaan’s severed head.

Perhaps the figure of Salome is much like the moon in this play. It reflects whatever the onlooker hopes to see. To those who wish to view Salome as the original femme fatal, she is reflected as dangerous and grotesque. To others, who encourage her rebellion, she is an icon for artistic self-reflection. Representations of Salome are varied and many. They are constantly evolving with shifts of collective experience. In any event, Salome has earned the name denied to her in the bible. She is to some a heroine, to others a pornographic object, and still others a dangerous threat to patriarchal order. She has many identities and even more desires, yet she continues to fascinate and repulse, as her mystery is unraveled.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1930s, who would have perpetrated violent acts against women in the name of sexual gratification yet still hold expectations that women take care of them? By making men in general the placeholder for “you” in the poem, it creates a much stronger and universal statement about the sexual inequality women face. She relates to women who have had “a god for [a] guest” yet it seems ironic because she is criticising the way these women have been treated (10). It could be argued, instead, that it is not that she sees men as gods, but that it is the way they see themselves. Zeus was a god who ruled Olympus and felt entitled to any woman he wanted, immortal or otherwise.

    Read More

  • Goddesses, Whores, Wives, And Slaves: Women In Classical Antiquity

    1877 Words  | 4 Pages

    This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.

    Read More

  • BBC's Shakespeare Retold: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Brian Percival

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    A major concern in both the film and the original text is the ‘status of women’. This is represented through the differing roles of women and their denigration within the Elizabethan society. For instance, Hero is accused of committing infidelity; consequently her image in society is tarnished, In addition to this, Claudio insults Hero publicly without even considering confirming the accusation of her being unchaste. This is illustrated through Claudio slandering Hero through the use of usage of Greek Mythological allusions “You seem to as Dian in her orb, but you are more intemperate than Venus in y...

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Feminism in Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    Feminists usually do not vary in the views that they have.  The feminist wants equal rights for both sexes, and wants all women to be treated just like men.  The short story and the play suggest something different.  Within the story there are many instances that suggest that Susan Gla...

    Read More

  • Ordinary Men by Browning

    1625 Words  | 4 Pages

    The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were just ordinary men, from a variety of backgrounds, education, and age. It would appear that they were not selected by any force other than random chance. Their backgrounds and upbringing, however, did little to prepare these men for the horrors they were to witness and participate in.

    Read More

  • I Tituba Black Witch Of Salem Analysis

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...men who kept them in bondage and to sleep with them?” (6). Almost every night she would have to lie on her back and make love to her husband where she “unleashed [her] fury and [their] moments of love-making resembled a battle” (23) willingly or not. She was stripped of her body and womanly factors, and in her husband's eyes was made to be his sexual slave.

    Read More

  • Exploring Misogyny: Societal Rules and Female Freedom

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    She tells the girl to “walk like a lady” (320), “hem a dress when you see the hem coming down”, and “behave in front of boys you don’t know very well” (321), so as not to “become the slut you are so bent on becoming” (320). The repetition of the word “slut” and the multitude of rules that must be obeyed so as not to be perceived as such, indicates that the suppression of sexual desire is a particularly important aspect of being a proper woman in a patriarchal society. The young girl in this poem must deny her sexual desires, a quality intrinsic to human nature, or she will be reprimanded for being a loose woman. These restrictions do not allow her to experience the freedom that her male counterparts

    Read More

  • Analysis of A Woman´s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source by Susan Sontag

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sontag introduces her essay to the audience by establishing a focal point around the fact that women viewed today are derivative from the religious perspective of how women were viewed in history. During the ancient times, Greeks and Christians practiced their own methods of analyzing and critiquing women and their beauty. The Greeks believed that the lack of ‘inner” beauty could be compensated with “outer” beauty. They distinguished the two beauties in a way that suggested that both were interconnected to one another within an individual. The preference and priority was given to the ‘outer’ beauty, while the ‘inner’ beauty would be kept at bay. Christianity, on the other hand, gave moral significance to beauty; in defining beauty, or words of physical character to be associated with woman and feminine. Gradually, Sontag introduces the distinguishable beauty between men and women. She does this by recapitulating how in a Christian religion, a woman’s body was parted into many sections to be judged and scrutinized, while men are visua...

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality and Feminism in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early twentieth century, the issue of gender inequality and lack of feminism was prevalent throughout society. Susan Gladspell’s play, Trifles, contains various instances of gender discrimination within the characters’ actions in the plot. Females in that society were subjected to great discrimination due to their sexuality and were viewed as insubordinate and only capable of obtaining menial jobs. This resulted in men constantly demeaning women in the form of mental and emotional abuse. Occasionally, this abuse gradually worsened and finally accumulated into some major disaster. In order to better the lives of women, the feminism movement was on the brink of starting a major revolution to restore equality in society. Throughout Susan Gladspell’s play, Trifles, the author incorporated elements of gender inequality and discrimination in hopes of bringing about the feminist movement.

    Read More

  • The Lady's Dressing Room By Jonathan Swift

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” written by Jonathan Swift, one may say he portrays himself to be a chauvinist by ridiculing women and their cryptic habits. However, others may say he wants to help women from the ideals placed upon them by society and prove to be an early feminist. This poem written in the 18th century represented women to be fake and sleazy at first. Then during the 20th century, the feminist movement used it as an attack against women, depicting the poem’s meaning as not valuing their rights and freedoms. The truth far hidden from these points of views became uncovered recently. This essay will explain both sides of the views and using critical thinking will uncover the real message the author intended to portray.

    Read More

  • Feminism In Antigone And Wicked

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gloria Steinem said, “A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men”. Feminists empower women but look for equality between both genders. Unfortunately there is a stigma and fear that comes with this word; when hearing the word feminist people quickly think of ‘man hatter’. In this paper I will be arguing that Antigone and Wicked both challenge and reinforce the conventional ideas of gender. This is an important topic because it will help us understand both sides of the pro-feminist and the anti-feminist. It will also help us see how women were viewed in the past and how they are viewed today.

    Read More

  • Treatment of Women in Ancient Literature

    2408 Words  | 5 Pages

    Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.

    Read More

  • Animality and Darkness in Othello

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...scene and the misogynistic views of such as Iago, 'How if she be black and witty'' with the later scene of Act IV Scne iii and Desdemona's refusal to say the word 'whore', 'I cannot say whore/It does abhor me', then the dark baseness of the male world is seen in opposition and dark contrast to the innocence and naivety of Desdemona.

    Read More

  • Much Ado About Nothing - A Feminist Perspective of Hero

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the plays female sexuality is not expressed variously through courtship, pregnancy, childbearing, and remarriage, as it is in the period.  Instead it is narrowly defined and contained by the conventions of Petrarchan love and cuckoldry.  The first idealizes women as a catalyst to male virtue, insisting on their absolute purity.  The second fears and mistrusts them for their (usually fantasized) infidelity, an infidelity that requires their actual or temporary elimination from the world of men, which then re-forms [sic] itself around the certainty of men’s shared victimization (Neely 127).

    Read More

  • Essay on Exploring Death in Death in Venice

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    It must also be noted there are no women in the story with prominent roles. The hero's wife is long dead and his daughter has been married and gone for many years. Any women in the story are merely in the background, unnamed and colorless-totally insignificant. Mann has purposely left them out because they are life givers, the symbol of fertility and birth. (The only one scene where women have an active role is in the degrading and violently promiscuous dream.)

    Read More

More about Salome by Oscar Wilde

Open Document