Wilde's rhetoric is highly stylized with the goal of creating the flow of a long poem. The guard, Herod, and Salome all have alarms which signal their impending doom but they refuse to listen. Salome's obsession with John turns to revulsion when he rejects her sexual advances- clearly a response she isn't used to. The kiss transforms from the erotic into the horrific, a running theme throughout.
Isn't it interesting that John is imprisoned in cistern? Something designed for water- the tool and symbol of baptism.
The book The Legend of Salome by Zacona points out that the difference between the Mark and Matthew versions of the story is one of psychological depth- a topic I hope to explore this week. This book also mentioned that Wilde gained some of his inspiration from the work of Gustave Moreau.
Because the Strauss libretto attempts to be as close to the Wilde play is possible I'm spending a lot of time with the original text before moving to the opera. My goal is to really understand the imagery Wilde found important so the contrast between the two will really jump out at me. My focus for this week is just comparing gospel accounts, and familiarizing myself still with Wilde's original work (and the sources he used for inspiration).
Any thoughts on De profundis?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great synthesis. It seems as though you are taking to heart the concerns I have as well. I began reading De profundis today. One of the statements I found most interesting was Wilde's contention that "where there is sorrow there is holy ground." How is this reflected in the play? Or how much of Wilde's literary or poetic philosophy is contained in De profundis? Can we use it as a kind of autobiographical literary criticism? My friend Stan told me the other day that "all writing is autobiography," and I tend to agree with him. So we can base our analysis on the opinion of one man. ;) I will have more thoughts shortly as I continue to read it.
"Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground."- wow! What a statement! That certainly is a profound set up for this scene with our main characters.
ReplyDeleteJust picked up a copy of De profundis myself. Can't wait to hear what you think about it.
John the Baptist is symbolically already buried, he's kept underground. The suicide, the crushing, a lot of blood flows in a very short period of time as "prophecy" is fulfilled.
Rathey cited De profundis as something we should incorporate so full steam ahead on that front!
Any thoughts about a good Wilde biography apart from his writing?