Salomé Theme of Sin

Um, we kind of wish that what happened in Herod's palace stayed in Herod's palace, Vegas-style. Instead, we have Salomé to remind us.

It all comes down to Eve: that's Jokanaan's position, and a lot of the action in Salomé seems to confirm it. Herodias and Salomé (mother and daughter) are the chief offenders: they refuse to repent, ignoring Jokanaan's every plea and brushing off his insults. This isn't to say everyone else is innocent—Herod is the one lusting after his own stepdaughter after all—but that terrible twosome doesn't even seem to understand remorse. Only Herod begins to reconsider his actions, and comes to revile the "monstrous" ways of his stepdaughter. In his realization, we have an acknowledgment of sin.

1. Jokanaan tells Salomé "[b]y woman came evil into the world." His interpretation is consistent with the Book of Genesis, but does his intense criticism of Herodias and Salomé betray some deeper hatred for women?
2. Why is Jokanaan so sure that Herodias will not repent?
3. The young Syrian, Salomé, Herod, and Herodias are all guilty the same sin to varying degrees: lust. Why does Wilde focus on that particular offense?

In Salomé, the notion of sin is deliberately ill-defined; as one of the Jews says, "It may be that the things we call evil are good, and that the things which we call good are evil." In this way, Wilde prevents us from judging his characters too quickly.

Jokanaan's entire theology is based on the notion that man is fundamentally sinful; he speaks of a time when those who believe will be cleansed, and those who do not will be destroyed.