Christa Giles

the feminine principle throughout the play) in demonic
terms: ˝a dead woman seeking dead things,˝ 273 while the
young Syrian sees rather ˝a beautiful princess.˝
Of course woman, when associated with the devil,
becomes the antipodes to male spirituality. In Là-bas
satanism is an expression of the male psyche while the
black mass (to which Chantelouve takes Durtal) is
associated with the female principle and the unconscious.
Wilde underlines the fact that not only does each man
project his subconscious desires and fears onto Salomé, but
also that her presence lets loose natural emanations of evil
within him. Thus, in contrast with the two soldiers, Herod
sees the moon as a naked, drunken ˝mad woman who is
seeking everywhere for lovers,˝ 274 whereupon Herodias
significantly responds, ˝No, the moon is like the moon.
That is all.˝ Even Salomé identifies herself with the moon:
˝The moon is cold and chaste,˝ she says. ˝I am sure she is a
virgin; she has a virgin’s beauty. She has never abandoned
herself to men like other goddesses.˝ 275 Moreover, these
perceptions of Salomé suggest her ambivalent nature. She
is associated both with fertility and sterility, with sexuality
and death. She is inaccessible, embodying mystery, and her
virginity, of course, suggests the consummate form of
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