‘The Fiend That Smites with a Look’: the Monstrous/Menstruous Woman and the Danger of the Gaze in Oscar Wilde's Salomé
Helen Tookey
[This article was published in Literature and Theology vol.18 no 1 (2004) pp.23-37. The copyright is held by Oxford University Press which does not permit reproduction. The article may be read by subscribers who have paid to have access to Oxford University Press journals (personally or through a university subscription) or on a Pay per View basis once an account has been established, by a cumbersome process. It is not disclosed how much this costs, but the quest starts at http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol18/issue1. This restriction means therefore that we can only here reproduce the abstract of this article, and record our regret that Oxford University Press have concealed it at the heart of a maze. Helen Tookey’s own website, which is freely accessible, is at http://helentookey.wordpress.com, and we are very grateful to Dr Tookey for her helpfulness. – Editor, THE OSCHOLARS.]
This article examines the figure of Salomé in Wilde’s play as a representation of monstrous and menstruous female sexuality. I trace the figure of Salomé back from the fin-de-siècle obsession with femmes fatales to the biblical and mythic personifications of the ‘dark side’ of feminine sexuality, and argue that the dominant images in Wilde’s play, of blood and the moon, can be connected and understood as images of menstruality: the confrontation between Salomé and Jokanaan is the confrontation of the profane (the sexually desirous, menstrual woman) with the sacred (the holy man set in a realm apart). I then go on to examine the theme of the power and danger of the gaze, again linking this to Salomé’s status as a ‘monstrous’ female. Finally, I suggest that, by paying close attention both to Wilde’s intriguing use of feminine signifiers (from the Song of Songs) to describe Jokanaan, and to Salomé’s own comments about her sexuality, we can discover a homoerotic subtext in the (ostensibly heterosexual) confrontation of Salomé and Jokanaan.
Biographical noteHelen Tookey was born and grew up near Leicester, UK. She studied philosophy at the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge and also has a doctorate in English Literature from Oxford University. She works partly as a freelance writer and editor and partly as a production editor for Liverpool University Press. She has published a monograph on Anaïs Nin (OUP, 2003), scholarly articles and short fiction, and is hoping to have her first collection of poetry published soon. Visit http://helentookey.wordpress.com for more info.
Return to the top 
Return to hub page 
Return to THE OSCHOLARS home page
Return to The Library Table of Contents