On a great terrace in the Palace of Herod, some soldiers are leaning over the balcony。 To the right, there is a gigantic staircase。 The moon is shining very brightly, thus the imprisoned prophet John’s voice is heard clearly。 Salome enters the scene and orders the young Syrian to bring tie prisoner from the cistern to the terrace and he does so。 As soon as Salome sees John, she is immediately attracted by him, saying that ‘he is like an image of silver’ and comparing him to the moon。 What impressed her most is his body,’ which she says ‘is white, like the lilies of a field that the mower hath never mowed。’ John does not even look at Salome because she is the daughter of the sinful and incestuous Herodias, who is the widow of one of King Herod’s brothers。 Salome seems to completely ignore John’s protests and declares, ‘I will kiss thy mouth, John。 I will kiss thy mouth。’  But John is not interested in the affection of a ‘daughter of adultery’ and tells Salome she should seek God。 Salome continually repeats her intention to kiss him。

 Shortly afterwards Herod follows Salome to the terrace。 He woos Salome and asks her to dance for him, but Salome refused it again and again。 Because of envy, Herodias quarrels with Herod。 The guests quarrel about religious matter。 Finally Salome dances, but demands John’s head for reward。 Herod has to kill John, but after that, he kills Salome, too。 

We can infer that in Wilde’s play, Salome is a proud princess who is able to use her attractiveness to get anything she wants。 Salome is somehow distanced from other characters not only because of her astonishing beauty but also because of her strong self-consciousness and arrogance。 来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*

Therefore, we can see that the driver for the development of the story had been changed, from the evil seduce of mother in Bible to the sacrifice of the desire of daughter in the drama。 John’s death in the original text was changed in to triple death in the drama (the death of the young Syrian, Salome, John the Baptist)。 But Salome doesn’t show a heavy tragic sense, for the adaptation of Wild focused on Salome’s absolute pursuit of love。 It’s the temporal Joys of aestheticism。 The original text of Bible only offered a carrier of story, for the author’s intention was to overturn its previous narration。 The Holy Bible promotes the awe for god and the admiration for prophets。 Filled with mysterious ideas, it denies people’s physical needs and save people with different kinds of moralization and pinity。 However, all of these are dissected in Wild’s Salome。 He followed the principle of “beautiful, love, and happiness”----the eternal theme of aestheticism in his works, and the advocated the art of death of aestheticism。

3。 Love the Hidden Theme

 Wilde changed the meaning of original the concept of the story in the Bible。 He only used the story’s framework to construct his own aestheticism with love and beauty。 In dictionary, love is a very strong felling of affection toward someone who you are romantically or sexually attracted to。 In Salome love and beauty is always bounded with each other。