The analyzing of Salome by Oscar Wilde was extremely interesting to be a part of. Throughout the course of the meeting today we came to a pretty general conclusion that the images by Aubrey Beardsley and the text by Oscar Wilde we're working in two different directions but simultaneously creating a very successful text. With this being said it was apparent that Aubrey Beardsley definitely took his own approach in illustrating for Oscar Wilde's playwright. Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations really take a play on sexuality and gender throughout the entire T of the book. In regard to the frontispiece, which is what I analyzed for my discussion presentation this week, there's a couple things to know in regard to gender and sexuality. First off, the title of the image is “A Woman in the Moon” and when you look at the face that is represented in the moon it is known to be a depiction of Oscar Wilde. The other thing to note about the frontispiece is the fact that there are two figures out to the right of the photo, one clearly represented as a man with the male genitalia showing but the other figure is gowned from top to bottom and although we can assume that it's a woman I don't think assuming is correct, it could be a man or a woman under that gown. With discussing the book as a whole we also saw common themes throughout the illustrations that almost poked fun at Oscar Wilde and his sexuality. I think Beardsley intentionally did this as he was an extremely modern artist for the time in which he was creating work. All in all, the text and the illustrations work together to tell one story but in two very different ways and almost borderline work against each other -but nonetheless created a wonderful.

Primary Source: “Illustrating Wilde: An examination of Aubrey Beardsley's interpretation of Salome.”The Victorian Web, Yelena Primorac.                                                                http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/beardsley/primorac.html. Accessed 25 October 2020.