Violent Relationships and Power Struggles in Oscar Wilde`s Salomé
...to dance, Salomé.” (46) but she always declines. He then expresses his indifference about whether she dances or not (“What is it to me whether she dance or not? It is nought to me.” 46f.) and finally begs her to dance because he is sad and he offers her a great reward. HEROD: Salomé, Salomé, dance for me. [ …] I am sad to-night. Therefore dance for me.[…] If thou dancest for me thou mayest ask of me what thou wilt, and I will give it thee. Yes, dance for me, Salomé, and whatsoever thou shalt ask of me I will give it thee, even unto the half of my kingdom. (49) Salomé asks for the head of Iokanaan seven times, which is the highest number of repetitions: SALOME: The head of Iokanaan.(55) SALOME: I ask of you the head of Iokanaan. (56) SALOME: I demand the head of Iokanaan. (57) SALOME: The head of Iokanaan! (58) SALOME: Give me the head of Iokanaan! (59) SALOME: Give me the head of Iokanaan! (60) SALOME: Give me the head of Iokanaan! (62) Note that the last three repetitions have exactly the same text. The effect is always the same. Shows unabwendbarkeit des schicksals bla bla da war doch was all repetitions have the same function. prophecy 3.6 The Function of the Moon The leitmotiv of the exposition is vision. Connections to other characters are made through vision. The young Syrian Narraboth looks at Salomé with desire: THE YOUNG SYRIAN: How beautiful the princess is to-night! THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: You are always looking at her. You look at her too much. It is dangerous to look at people in such fashion. [...] (3f.) THE YOUNG SYRIAN: The princess has hidden her face behind her fan! Her little white hands are fluttering like doves that fly to their dove-cots. They are like white butterflies. They are just like white butterflies. THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: What is that to you? Why do you look at her? You must not look at her...[...] (7f.) and the page of Herodias looks with desire at Narraboth, like Salomé looks at the prophet Iokanaan and Herod at Salomé. All of them characterize themselves and their expectations by looking at the moon. The young Syrian and the page of Herodias, for example, say: THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things. THE YOUNG SYRIAN: She has a strange look. She is like a little princess who wears a yellow veil, and whose feet are of silver. She is like a princess who has little white doves for feet. One might fancy she was dancing. THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: She is like a woman who is dead. She moves very slowly. (1f.) For the page of Herodias the moon symbolizes death and functions as an ill omen which foretells the suicide of Narraboth. The moon represents Salomé: it is her who brings ruin on the young Syrian, her rejection is the reason for his suicide. While the page then compares the moon to a dead woman, which again refers to Salomé who is killed in the end, the young Syrian projects his erotic desire for Salomé on the moon. To him the moon appears as tempting as Salomé does, they look the same. His description of the moon also serves as a foreshadowing of the later events of the play. The yellow veil and the fact that the moon seems to dance are a hint to the dance of the seven veils that Salomé will be performing later. The silver of the feet Narraboth sees reappears when Salomé asks for the head of Iokanaan in a silver charger: SALOME: [Kneeling.] I would that they presently bring me in a silver charger... [...] SALOME: [Rising.] The head of Iokanaan. (55) Later Salomé says at her first appearance about the moon: How good to see the moon! She is like a little piece of money, a little silver flower. She is cold and chaste. I am sure she is a virgin. She has the beauty of a virgin. Yes, she is a virgin. She has never defiled herself. She has never abandoned herself to men, like other goddesses. (11) Salomé uses the moon as a mirror and sees in it all her own characteristics: her description of the moon is the description of herself. She is aware of her coldness, her beauty, and her power: the fact that she contrasts the moon, ergo herself, to „other goddesses“ implies that she must consider herself a goddess and therefore as very powerful. Herod says about the moon: The moon has a strange look to-night. Has she not a strange look? She is like a mad woman who is seeking everywhere for lovers. She is naked too. She is quite naked. The clouds are seeking to clothe her nakedness, but she will not let them. She shows herself naked in the sky. She reels through the clouds like a drunken woman....I am sure she is looking for lovers. Does she not reel like a drunken woman? She is like a mad woman, is she not? (27-28) For Herod, just like for the young Syrian, the moon has an erotic quality and mirrors his sexual desire for his stepdaughter. Herod´s declaration also contains signs of the events to come. Salomé is indeed looking for a lover, namely Iokanaan, and she is mad (for him) as well. The clouds seeking to clothe her nakedness evoke associations to Salomé´s striptease-like dance of the seven veils. In a sharp contrast to the other characters, Herodias does not see anything “strange“ (28) in the moon. Her disclaimer, juxtaposed to the fantastic descriptions of the others, has nearly a comic effect: “No, the moon is like the moon, that is all.“(28) The moon does not only function as a mirror and technical device to present the characters and describe their motivations; it is also a symbol which combines the most important concepts of the play: love and death, distance and desire, violence and fatality. 4. Violent Relationships in Salomé The central theme of the play is the relationship between Salomé, Iokanaan, and Herod. Because of Herod´s longing for Salomé he is forced to give her the head of the prophet, whom he fears and neither dares to kill nor to let free: HERODIAS: I tell you are afraid of him. If you are not afraid of him why do you not deliver him to the Jews who for these six months past have been clamouring for him? A JEW: Truly, my lord, it were better to deliver him into our hands. HEROD: Enough on this subject. I have already given you my answer. I will not deliver him into your hands. He is a holy man. He is a man who has seen God. (34) and HEROD: […] If he die also, peradventure some evil may befall me. Verily, he has said that evil will befall some one on the day whereon he dies. On whom should it fall if it fall not on me? (60) But Salomé, infuriated and hurt by Iokanaan´s rejection, takes advantage of Herod´s unrestrained desire for her: HEROD: [...] dance for me, Salome, and whatsoever thou shalt ask of me I will give it thee, even unto the half of my kingdom. (49) and lures him into the fatal dilemma: HEROD: [...]You see that she has danced for me, your daughter. Come near, Salome, come near, that I may give thee thy fee. [...] I will give thee whatsoever thy soul desireth. What wouldst thou have? Speak.“ SALOME: [Kneeling.] I would that they presently bring me in a silver charger...[...] SALOME: [Rising.] The head of Iokanaan.“ (54-55) 4.1 Salomé and Herod The pushing through of Salomé´s apparently unjustified and vindictive wish for the prophet’s head may seem perverse. It is indeed as perverse as the world in which the chaste Salomé has to live in. Her world is chaotic and corrupt, ruthless and unpredictable, raw and brutal. In the same cistern, in which now Iokanaan is kept imprisoned, Salomé´s father used to sit until his brother, Herod, gave order to strangle him so he could have his power and his wife, Herodias: HEROD: Of a truth dear and noble Herodias, you are my wife, and before that you were the wife of my brother. HERODIAS: It was thou didst snatch me from his arms. (43) Herod openly harrasses his stepdaughter sexually, not only with unambiguously incestuous and eager looks but also verbally, for example, when he offers Salomé fruits “I love to see in a fruit the mark of thy little teeth. Bite but a little of this fruit, that I may eat what is left.” (32). At the same time Jews, Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians fight about religion and power, and there is no relying on anything. We find “Jews from Jerusalem who are tearing each other in pieces” next to “Romans brutal and coarse” (10) and the loss of faith: “In my country there are no gods left. I think they are dead.” (5) Salomé tries to escape from this artificial world when she leaves her stepfather’s banquet, steps out to the terrace to breathe freely and to let her soul be mirrored in the moon: I will not stay. I cannot stay. 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. (10) While Salomé tries to escape mentally from her world she hears the voice of Iokanaan like an answer calling for the salvation of humankind. Even though Herod fears Iokanaan, he is driven outside onto the terrace by his sexual desire. This is also illustrated by his description of the moon: “She is like a mad woman [...] seeking everywhere for lovers. She is naked too” (28). Herod then tries to lure Salomé three times by offering her wine, fruit and the throne of her mother in a very suggestive manner. He does not pay attention to the commentary of his wife: HEROD: [...] Salome, come drink a little wine with me. I have here a wine that is exquisite. Cæsar himself sent it me. Dip into it thy little red lips, that I may drain the cup. SALOME: I am not thirsty, Tetrarch. HEROD: You hear how she answers me, this daughter of yours? HERODIAS: She does right. Why are you always gazing at her? HEROD: [...] Salome, come and eat fruits with me. I love to see in a fruit the mark of thy little teeth. Bite but a little of this fruit, that I may eat what is left. SALOME: I am not hungry, Tetrarch. [...] HEROD: Salome, come and sit next to me. I will give thee the throne of thy mother. SALOME: I am not tired, Tetrarch. (32f.) In spite of Salomé declining all of the three offers, Herod goes a step further and asks her twice, and then commands her, to dance for him. Salome again refuses. Only when he beseeches her for the fourth time, she finally agrees without paying attention to her mother who repeatedly tells her not to dance: HEROD: Salome, Salome, dance for me. I pray thee dance for me. I am sad to-night. When I came hither I slipped in blood, which is an ill omen; also I heard in the air a beating of wings, a beating of giant wings . I cannot tell what they may mean....I am sad to-night. Therefore dance for me. Dance for me, Salome, I beseech thee. If thou dancest for me thou mayest ask of me what thou wilt, and I will give it thee. Yes, dance for me, Salome, and whatsoever thou shalt ask of me I will give it thee, even unto the half of my kingdom. SALOME: [Rising.] Will thou indeed give me whatsoever I shall ask of you, Tetrarch? HERODIAS: Do not dance, my daughter. HEROD: Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, even unto the half of my kingdom. SALOME: You swear it, Tetrarch? [...] HERODIAS: Do not dance, my daughter. SALOME: By what will you swear this thing, Tetrarch? HEROD: By my life, by my crown, by my gods. [...] SALOME: You have sworn an oath, Tetrarch. HEROD: I have sworn an oath. HERODIAS: My daughter, do not dance. HEROD: [...] I am passing happy. Have I not the right to be happy? Your daughter is going to dance for me. Wilt thou not dance for me, Salome? Thou hast promised to dance for me. HERODIAS: I will not have her dance. SALOME: I will dance for you, Tetrarch. (49ff.) Herod would give her anything indeed because he thinks he can tempt her with treasures and jewelry, objects that tempt himself. Salomé, however, is only interested in power, in his kingdom. He might consider her final agreement to dance a success, a proof of his influence or persuasiveness but he is mistaken: Salomé becomes aware of his weakness and takes advantage of it. She sees a great opportunity in Herod´s promise to ask from him whatever she desires and in her hunger for power she wants to have his offer again and again confirmed. In Herod´s assurance “By my life, by my crown, by my gods” an intensifying triplet is used to emphasize the fierceness of his obsession with Salomé. While she triumphantly dances with bare feet on the blood of Narraboth, which underlines her cruelty, Herod is very much delighted and wants to pay her well: Ah! Wonderful! Wonderful! [...] Come near, Salome, come near that I may give thee thy fee. Ah! I pay a royal price to those who dance for my pleasure. I will pay thee royally. I will give thee whatsoever thy soul desireth. What wouldst thou have? Speak. SALOME: [...] I would that they presently bring me in a silver charger [...] The head of Iokanaan. HERODIAS: Ah! That is well said my daughter. HEROD: No! No! (54f.) In contrast to Herodias, who is proud of her daughter, Herod is shocked by her cruel demand. He tries in three great “arias“- which make the counterpart of Salomé´s praising of Iokanaan - to change his stepdaughter’s mind by promising her rare treasures and magic objects as well as the power of a queen and a high priest: [...] I have jewels hidden in this place-jewels that thy mother even has never seen; jewels that are marvellous to look at. I have a collar of pearls, set in four rows. They are like unto moons chained with rays of silver. They are even as half a hundred moons caught in a golden net. On the ivory breast of a queen they have rested. Thou shalt be as fair as a queen when thou wearest them. [...] In a coffer of nacre I have three wondrous turquoises. He who wears them in his hand can turn the fruitful woman into a woman that is barren. These are great treasures. They are treasures above all price. But this is not all [...] What desirest thou more than this, Salome? Tell me the thing that thou desirest, and I will give it thee. All that thou askest I will give thee, save on thing only. I will give thee all that is mine, save only the thing of one man. I will give thee the mantle of the high priest. I will give thee the veil of the sanctuary. (60-62) In his long speech of persuasion, Herod experiences two moments of insight. The first insight happens when he looks into his inner self and realizes that he has looked too often and too intensely at Salomé: I have ever loved thee....It may be that I have loved thee too much. [...] Thou sayest that but to trouble me, because that I have looked at thee and ceased not this night. Thy beauty has troubled me. Thy beauty has grievously troubled me, and I have looked at thee overmuch. Nay, but I will look at thee no more. One should not look at anything. Neither at things, nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors is it well to look, for mirrors do but show us masks. (57-58) The second insight of Herod is that he had seen only one aspect, one mask of Salomé, namely the pretty and desirable girl, and realized her cruelty and her powers too late. But Salomé will not yield and insists on her perverse request until Herod´s resistance breaks down: “Let her be given what she asks!“(62). A few moments later the executioner presents the severed head of the prophet in a silver charger and Salomé experiences the triumph over both, Herod who plagued her and Iokanaan who rejected her, at the same instance. Finally, kneeling before the head of the dead prophet she again and again repeats triumphantly: “I have kissed thy mouth, Iokanaan.“(66) Herod cannot stand this sight and he leaves the dark stage climbing up the staircase. He feels defeated and has abandoned Salomé to her perverse morbidity. For him Salomé is a monster and her acting a crime against an unknown God. This is why he wants to hide all traces of her and himself in darkness: I will not look at things, I will not suffer things to look at me. Put out the torches! Hide the moon! Hide the stars! Let us hide ourselves in our palace, Herodias. I begin to be afraid. (66) When all of a sudden a ray of moonlight falls on Salomé, the helpless Herod turns around and speaks the words of extinction: “Kill that woman!“(68) and his soldiers crush her beneath their shields. In spite of her sudden and violent death, she has had her greatest wish fulfilled and was able to enjoy kissing intimately the lips of the dead prophet. As Donahue explains: Salome has acted with such single-mindedness of purpose and has remained so implacable in her desire that she overmastered the weaker will of the patriarch, compromising his supreme power and stature in the kingdom and forcing him into the most extreme of actions: first, the killing of the prophet despite deep misgivings about the advisability of such a deed, and then the cowardly, vindictive murder of Salome herself. 4.2 Salomé and Iokanaan When Salomé hears the voice of Iokanaan she immediately wants to see the body belonging to this voice, and against the orders of Herod she persuades Narraboth to allow her. At first his curses are repellent to her but then she is fascinated by him: Ah, but he is terrible, he is terrible! [...] It is his eyes above all that are terrible.[...] Do you think he will speak again? [...] How wasted he is! He is like a thin ivory statue. He is like an image of silver. I am sure he is chaste, as the moon is. He is like a moonbeam, like a shaft of silver. His flesh must be very cold, cold as ivory....I would look closer at him. [...] I must look at him closer. (19) His disapproving attitude strengthens her interest in him. The more he curses her, the more she becomes obsessed with him: IOKANAAN: Who is this woman who is looking at me? I will not have her look at me. Wherefore doth she look at me, with her golden eyes, under her gilded eyelids? I know not who she is. I do not desire to know who she is. Bid her begone. It is not her that I would speak. SALOME: I am Salome, daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judæa. IOKANAAN: Back! Daughter of Babylon! Come not near the chosen of the Lord. Thy mother hath filled the earth with the wine of her iniquities, and the cry of her sinning hath come up even to the ears of God. SALOME: Speak again, Iokanaan. Thy voice is as music to mine ear. [...] IOKANAAN: Daughter of Sodom, come not near me! But cover thy face with a veil, and scatter ashes upon thine head, and get thee to the desert, and seek out the Son of Man. SALOME: Who is he, the Son of Man? Is he as beautiful as thou art, Iokanaan? (20f.) It may be seen as a provocation of Salomé, to answer to an insult (“Back! Daughter of Babylon!”) with a compliment (“Thy voice is music to mine ear”). As Iokanaan's despising profanities go on, Salome continues to show her delight (“Is he as beautiful as thou art?”). Iokanaan has realized her dangerous attractiveness and she becomes a diabolic temptation for him. This is why he calls upon her to cover her face with a veil. Soon two disparities begin to clash: Salomé´s erotomania and Iokanaan's asceticism as withdrawn from the world. There will be no understanding between these two extremes of sensuality and spirituality, erotic passion and religious fanaticism. We find here the traditional dichotomy of body versus soul with the body personified by Salomé and the soul by Iokanaan. Salome, inflamed with swelling desire, begins to praise his white body, his black hair and his red mouth : SALOME: I am amorous of thy body, Iokanaan! Thy body is white, like the lilies of a field that the mower ha...