gh the Syrian told Salome that he cannot endure hearing her wordsof emotion towards the prophet, she still persisted. The nature of evil is alsoapparent here. Wilde was trying to show how having anything to do withwomen has negative results. No one should allow themselves to be drawninto a woman or anything so much that he cannot bear to see her even flirtwith another man. The young Syrian Captain made that error which turnedout to be fatal.This idea of perverse passion or lust towards another in Salome can berelated to The Importance of Being Earnest. In that play as well as this onewe see how men will do things beyond normal to get the attention of womanand will go to any lengths to rectify the situation. Jack and Algernon bothadmitted to lying and got the women they wanted while the young SyrianCaptain took his own life because he could not get the woman he wanted. One of the underlying themes of this play is not to have a perverse passion orlust towards a woman to such a great extent; be able to bear rejection or loss.How Herod has incestuous feelings towards Salome and how he wantsSalome to dance for him is another example of this perverse passion that isseen in this play. He becomes fixated on having this young princess dancefor him. In fact, he becomes so obsessed with the idea that he offers heranything she wants even half his kingdom. The idea of a king offering halfhis kingdom just because of a lust or want of a girl is absurd and when shedoes dance for him he is forced to execute the prophet he fears afterwards hethen executes Salome because it was too much. The king did not want toexecute the prophet and told her to ask for anything else. Herod could notstand to be defied. Salome’s own twisted nature not only caused the death ofJokanaan but of her’s as well. In the end, no good will come from this kindof lust towards a woman. Oscar Wilde’s theme is that only destruction willcome from women and...
