The moon has two sides, the side that is ever illuminated by the sun, and the side we see, and then there is the dark side; forever cast into the shadows, never to see earth, nor be seen by earth. Similar to the moon, humans never merely have one side but are multifaceted. The character Salome has many different sides, and even more that the characters of the play see, though all the characters do see Salome in the moon. Herod originally only sees Salome as a beautiful erotic creature, however when she requests the head of The Prophet, he sees the corruption within her. He then realizes, “Only in mirrors is it well to look, for mirrors do but show us masks.” However, the moon acts as a mirror for Salome, reflecting to each character a different mask.
The Page of Herodias was very worried about his friend Narraboth and where his gaze fell. He continuously tells him not to look upon Salome, for he looks at her too much, and he prophesized that “something terrible may happen” if he continued to gaze at her in such a way (Wilde 393). The Page of Herodias sees danger both within the gaze of his friend towards Salome, as well as in the moon. He saw in the moon that “she was looking for dead things” (Wilde 393). The moon sought dead things and dead things were brought, in the form of the suicide of Narraboth. However, Narraboth was not the only death that occurred; there was also the death of The Prophet. Though Salome did not seek the death of the Syrian, she was the cause of it. The Prophet’s death, however, was sought by Salome, for she ordered it. Once The Prophet was dead she ordered his head be brought to her. The Page of Herodias had not only seen the danger of Salome, but he prophesized The Prophet’s demise. After the death of ...
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...he clouds sought to cover her. This shows a change in Salome from the chaste virgin, to seeking the love of The Prophet. To get to the prophet, she will dance for Herod until all the veils that cover her are gone. Before she dances the moon turns red as blood, as The Prophet predicted, and this signifies the corruption of Salome. Salome realizes the corruption and states to the decapitated head of the prophet, “I was a princess, and thou didst scorn me. I was a virgin, and thou didst take my virginity from me. I was chaste, and thou didst fill my veins with fire” (428). The moon is a mirror for the corruption of Salome.
A mask suggests that something is hidden from view, which can be dangerous. Most of the characters in Salome we blinded what they saw in Salome, whether it be love, sexual desire, or normalcy, that they were unable to see the entirety of her being.
Have you had a time in your life, where everything just seemed to be going wrong, and life was hard. Then all of the sudden you actually have a good day. You made it through when times were bad. In the novels Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, and Shooting the Moon by Frances O’roark Dowell the theme getting through the hard times so you can see the good ones, is shown by Jacqueline and her family not being treated fairly, Jacqueline leaving her home, and Jamie's brother going to war.
Through her autonomy, being unlike others and destined to live an ethereal and divine life, she demonstrates yet another goddess archetype: the virgin. She feels it is her sole destiny to go to the divine and does not fear sacrifice, but exults in her role as both conduit to the gods and a goddess herself. She has a longing to be with the gods and knows she is singular and special among the mortals of Glome. “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to the find the place where all the beauty came from —”
The submission of women is demonstrated in the text through the symbolic colors of the couple’s bedroom. Indeed, as the young woman’s husband is asleep, the wife remains wide-awake, trying her best to provide the man with comfort, while enjoying her newlywed life. As she opens her eyes to contemplate “the blue of the brand-new curtains, instead of the apricot-pink through which the first light of day [filters] into the room where she [has]
very hard to get into her world from the first chapter, Winter, Hainsh Cycle 93,
Sometimes we all feel as if no one person could or would ever truly love us as we deserve. This is the case in the Moon for the Misbegotten. A young, not so attractive, wants to be loved but fears that if she did love, her life would not be as it is now. She fears change and not because she wants the life she is leading but because it means she would have to free herself from who she pretends to be.
One of the themes that the black veil conveys is hidden sin. In the story, Reverend Hooper says”..deem me a monster for the symbol beneath which and lived and die!.. on every visage a black veil,” after people shun him and set him out to be a monster. Before the black veil, Hooper was well liked and was often invited to eat dinner with people from his congregation. As he began to wear the black veil, people’s perception of him changed. “Men avoided me and women show no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil,” Hooper states. Though it is only an accessory, the black veil has a great significance. It depicts sin mankind hides within. Although people may argue the veil covers a major sin Hooper has done, I believe the black veil teaches a moral lesson, which man and woman can interpret for themselves. For ...
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
Masks have been mentioned in Venetian history dating back to the thirteenth century. They are formed out of paper-mache and decorated with various paints, gems, feathers, and other decorations (Magic of Venezia Mask Story). The Venetian Republic was composed of intensive social and economic inequality, making for a unique culture. Such inequalities resulted in the use of masks for the purpose of concealing an individual’s identity. Venice, being such a small city, made it difficult to keep secrets but the use of the mask helped make it a bit easier. The masks served the social purpose of keeping all citize...
The Virgin Mary serves as the connection between the fertility of the paradoxical garden and the divine structure of the golden tapestry. Wearing an ornate and naturalistic cloak, which conceals the majority of her physical features, the Virgin becomes the pyramidal anchor of the
In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Muses, which are the nine singing goddesses who he came across one day while taking care of his lambs, serve as a guide to the poet’s genealogy and organization of the origins of the gods by inspiring him to write down the lineage as they sing it. Using their angelic voices, the Muses presented Hesiod with the history of the cosmos in order. Thus, inspiring him to become a poet; he made this major change in his life and that resulted in Theogony, a chronological poem that consists of short life lessons, punishments, and roots of many Greek gods and goddesses. In this poem, Hesiod described these accounts as songs, when in fact, they were long verbal stories of how the gods of Olympus came to be. The sole purpose of
The poem uses many literary devices to enhance the meaning the words provide. The poem starts at the beginning of the story as the moon comes to visit the forge. The moon is said to be wearing “her skirt of white, fragrant flowers” (Lorca 2) as its bright light penetrates the scene. The poem states “the young boy watches her, watches. / The young boy is watching her” (3-4). The repetition of the phrase emphasizes the young boy’s infatuation with the moon. The scene is set with intensity by the phrase “electrified air” (5) and a tense feeling is brought into the poem. As “the moon moves her arms” (6), she is given traits of being alive and having her own human qualities. Personification of the moon into a woman exemplifies the desire that the child would have for the woman, and creates a more appealing form for the moon to appear as. The child cries, “flee, moon, moon, moon” (9) with urgency, showing his concern for her. He warns her “they would make with your heart / white necklaces and rings” (11-12). This refers back to the metaphor that the moon is made of hard tin, but still personifies her by giving her a heart. The moon is additionally personified when she says “ young boy, leave me to dance”(13). She has now taken the form of a sensual and erotic gypsy dancer furthering the desire of the young boy. This brings Spanish culture to the poem because gypsies are known to travel throughout Spain. The mo...
Though a mask may just be a paper cut out, a molded piece of plastic, or in the Lord of the Flies, a painted face, they all have the same ability to create a feeling of freedom from responsibility. They may make they wearer feel more important or powerful and too good for work, leading to a lack of fulfillment of their responsibility. This belief in freedom from responsibility is best exemplified by Jack, the first one on the island to begin wearing a mask. He used a mask because he felt it gave him power and skill, giving him reason to take up hunting as a prime responsibility, opposed to keeping the fire going. In their...
Glome is a somewhat morbid place, led by King Trom, father of Orual, Redival, and Psyche. Trom is an uncharitable, malicious king who is completely selfish. Ungit, the goddess who is worshiped in Glome, shares common characteristics, proving to be a brutal and dark goddess. One who even requires blood sacrifices. Orual describes ungit saying, “She is a black stone without head or hands or face, and a very strong goddess. My old master, whom we called the Fox, said she was the same whom the Greeks call Aphrodite” (4). Aphrodite, being the goddess of love and beauty is often viewed as a gentle and kind goddess. This represents the love in which Aphrodite stands for. In contrast, Ungit being strong and dark in appearance symbolizes the love which she represents, and that in which the kingdom of Glome has come to know through worshiping her. We see this dark and powerful love through the way Trom treats his daughters, the way the priest speaks of Psyche’s sacrifice, and the way Orual loves Psyche, Bardia, and the
Unlike the impatient Theseus, who mourns the dark moon, Hippolyta sees the moon as a symbol of Cupid and his arrows, which unite lovers:
In the story of Daphne and Apollo, the chief agent of transformation is love, represented by Venus and her youthful and mischievous son, Cupid. When the god Apollo brags to Cupid of his great might exemplified by his defeat of the python, Cupid humbles him by reducing the great god to a shameless lover with his gold-tipped arrow of love. A transformation of sorts takes place when the Cupid's arrow strikes Apollo. Apollo transforms from a bragging God who claims superiority over Cupid by saying, 'You be content with your torch to excite love, whatever that may be, and do not aspire to praises that are my prerogative,';(p. 41) to a man possessed by desire. Despite his powers of strength and domination, the God of War is humbled by Love. A lesson is being taught to Apollo by Cupid. A weakness is spotlighted and exposed, and the role of Apollo is almost completely reversed. He is transformed from a figurehead of power to a crazed lover with no power over his love.