{"id":331,"date":"2022-03-20T16:29:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T20:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/?p=331"},"modified":"2022-03-20T16:29:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T20:29:43","slug":"if-looks-could-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/2022\/03\/20\/if-looks-could-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"If Looks Could Kill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After taking a deeper look into the man behind the works we have been reading this semester, it was interesting to read Salom\u00e9, <\/em>which is all about the act of looking and the consequences of taking pleasure in that looking. Already, this connects back to Wilde and his wild life as a homosexual man constantly in the spotlight for his curious actions. In the play, the consequence of those guilty of taking pleasure in looking at others is ultimately death. The young Syrian cannot resist his lustful looks at Salom\u00e9 and kills himself when he cannot take her lust for Jokanaan. The investment in his looking seals his fate, but when he dies no one takes care except for the page, who with trademark Wilde style, laments him heavy homoerotic undertones. The other man who falls prey to looking at Salom\u00e9 is Herod. His incestuous lust for her leads him to the execution of Jokanaan to satisfy Salom\u00e9. Being so obsessed with looking at her, he does not realize the consequences of promising her anything she wanted. The culmination of looking comes with Salom\u00e9\u2019s disgusting lust for Jokanaan resulting with her kissing the severed head of the prophet. Focusing on this voyeuristic idea of looking, we can see how this reflects Wilde\u2019s own life being sexually attracted to men. Even though looking seems like a passive activity, there is discomfort when that lustful look is focused on someone who society deems you should not be attracted to. Of course this play was written before Wilde ever went to prison, but we can see the consequences of looking which leads to fatal action. In general, looking is the only activity a homosexual person can enjoy without being immediately judged for their desires since there\u2019s no harm in looking. But here we see Wilde highlighting how there is harm in looking. Once we start, there\u2019s no stopping and the desire for something will grow until it must be acted on. We see this not only in the play, but reflected in the events of Wilde\u2019s life being imprisoned for gross indecency. By sticking a foot in the door, Pandora\u2019s box is effectively opened and you must be prepared to face the consequences. Wilde could not deny who he was, and because he was determined to be himself he was arrested. There is harm in a look because a look always leads to something more. Salom\u00e9 <\/em>reveals to us the danger of taking a peek into the more curious parts of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After taking a deeper look into the man behind the works we have been reading this semester, it was interesting to read Salom\u00e9, which is all about the act of looking and the consequences of taking pleasure in that looking. Already, this connects back to Wilde and his wild life as a homosexual man constantly … Continue reading If Looks Could Kill<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/oascarwilde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}