와일드와 비어즐리의 <살로메>에 담긴 19세기 말 신여성 이미지

Wilde's and Beardsley's Salome

Wilde's Salome is a poetic drama of sensual passion. It is a decadent treatment of the Biblical story of Salome. The play was barred from public performance in English on the basis that it was illegal to depict Biblical characters on stage. The narration of Salome is guided by the sexual desire of the characters. There are four different instances of unfulfilled desire in Salome: the Young Syrian's for Salome, Herod's for Salome, the Page of Herodias's for the Young Syrian, and Salome's for Iokaanan. Salome both in Wilde's and Beardsley's representation shows women's agency or power in sexuality. She is far from an inert, passive object of male desire and possesses sexual desire of her own. She frankly acknowledges her lust for Iokaanan. In addition she manipulates her admirers' desire for her to her own advantage. She offers to smile at the Young Syrian in exchange for her meeting with Iokaanan, and she agrees to dance for Herod in exchange for Iokaanan's head. In both cases, Salome is aware of the power of her attraction and effectively uses this power to get what she wants. Beardsley's illustrations emphasize Salme's cruelty and grotesqueness. In ‘The Dancer's Reward’ and ‘The Climax’ Salome was seen as being demonic. We can perceive the subtly misogynist subtext in Wiled's and Beardsley's representation of Salome. They cast her as one of many femmes fatale who circulated throughout late 19th-century art. Like other femme fatale figures, Salome invented by Wilde and Beardsley can be read as a vehicle through which the (male) artists reveal their anxieties about the increasing political, sexual, and social freedoms available to New women.