Salomé's Tragic Mistake
Updated: Sep 22, 2020
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Starting today, I'm going to be reviewing three Oscar Wilde plays starting with the classic story, "Salomé". I really enjoyed reading the lines for this play, and I think people who prefer tragic stories would like it just as much as I did.
I was surprised when I started this play to find out that it is based on the story of John the Baptist's death in the Bible, a story I'm familiar with. Even though he kept it relatively true to the biblical story, Oscar Wilde added twists and details to make the play more interesting and imaginable for the audience. In the play and original story, King Herod, the ruler of Judea, asks his daughter named Salomé to dance for him. When she refuses his request, Herod tells Salomé that if she dances, he will give her anything up to half his kingdom. Out of all the things Salomé could have asked for, she instead wants the one thing Herod doesn't want to give...
Oscar Wilde draws out Salomé's dainty, but cruel attributes during the play, giving the audience a unique view of how manipulative she might have been.
I would give the play "Salomé" 4 out of 5 stars because I really enjoyed how in-depth the dialog was, though it was hard to understand what was going on at times because of the twists in the story line. Some of Wilde's additions to the original story were weird and graphic, but I don't think it took away from the value of the story. For me, this fictional story is definatly worth reading because of the biblical and historical elements of how sad that particular moment would have been.
Please comment if you've heard of the story of Salomé and know what the twist ending is.
