Salomé

Study Guide

Summary

Part 2

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Summary Part 2

In comparison, Jokanaan's curses mime various forms of "biblical" speech. A consideration of these individual modes of speech (prophecy, condemnation, etc,) would undoubtedly yield much. We should at the very least pause on his oblique condemnations of Herod and Herodias. Throughout Jokanaan's rantings, Herod will appear as the monarch whose "cup of abominations" is full and who will die in the face of the people in his kingly robes. Salomé's images of the fallen monarch are of considerable interest for Wilde's audience, particularly when they later come to invoke notions of the king's vanitas. As for Herodias, it is not lost on us that the queen too appears guilty of the crimes of sight: she has "seen the images of Chaldeans limned in colors" and given herself up "unto the lust of her eyes."