OSCAR WILDE’S NEW SALOME. THE FATALISM OF THE DANCE

Abstract

The present paper analyses the figure of Salome as a new type of heroine in the context of Oscar Wilde’s drama “Salome” and in the context of the fin de siècle nineteenth-century literature. Salome has no name in the Scriptures of the New Testament, she is simply the daughter of Herodias. The paper makes a comparative analysis between the figure of the anonymous princess in the sacred books and Salome, refracted through the eyes of Oscar Wilde. Various transitions are traced – from subordination to autonomy, from object to subject and from passivity to activity – transitions attested also in the “The Dance of the Seven Veils” element.