A Quest for Love and Sexual Identity - Essay Example

Modern humanity is willing to take a step forward in a quest for self-actualization and realization, by daring to deny and if possible distort that which is considered to be natural, regular, decent, and moral, to realize what is innate, primitive, irrepressible, and essential. The plots of the Salome Opera and The Skin I Live In tend to portray such modern trends and inclinations.

            In Opera Salome, Salome confined in the domains of the sultry and incestuous house of Herod, tends to suffer in the depths of her soul to express something that is the natural aspect of her body and identity and which in its search for satisfaction and expression, does not need to be degraded and sullied in a garb of abject sultriness, as was being done by Herod and Herodias. Hence, to protect her sexuality and identity from the incestuous gaze of Herod and from the traditional constraints symbolized by squabbling Jews, she escapes into the courtyard, where she first comes across Prophet Jochanaan, who irrespective of his chastity and ascetic profile, offers a scope for an honest expression of love and sexuality (Seshadri 32). Hence surrounded in the mire of depraved and spoiled atmosphere around her, Salome opts for a rebelliously frank and naked quenching of her love and the affiliated sexual and sensual instincts, by choosing to kiss the lips of Jochanaan’s severed head. 

            In a somewhat similar manner, Robert Ledgard the stylish and influential plastic surgeon in The Skin I Live In, played by Antonio Banderas, performs a sex reassignment surgery on his beautiful and volatile captive, professedly with revengeful motives, yet at a deeper level, he is engaged in a more sensual and carnal pursuit, by violating the domains of nature, to challenge that what has hitherto been considered to be unnatural, unethical and perhaps insane (French: Online). While doing so, Robert starkly resembles Salome in his modern panache for an uninhibited expression and gratification of love and sexuality.

            To put it simply, though Opera Salome and The Skin I Live In tend to be thrillers replete with mystery, revenge, violence, sex, and the bizarre, in a subtle analysis, both these works of art tend to approach a more contemporary, modern and relevant explanation of love and sexual identity.