“Eve”
“Still plotting? But you got what you said you wanted. What you spent
so much breath saying you wanted. And
already you want another king. Better women than you would have happily married
my brother,” said Salome to Mariam.
Salome is “Exhibit A” when misogynists go to prove their case. She is everything
Joseph Swetnam would expect her to be. She lies, she lusts, and she lays plans
to ruin people. Were she alive today, surely she would look like Lisbeth
Salander. She would not be as kind.
Mariam is Salome’s foil. She is kind--and chaste--and when she causes trouble,
it is usually a result of her naiveté. Were she alive today, surely she would
look like the perfectly polished and conservative Southern belle. She would not
be as kind.
“Better than me? Please. You’ve never seen a better woman than me. Certainly
you’re not one. My servants are better than you.”
Mariam, though, is no Virgin Mary. She has a fault--
“Wow, you
are mouthy, aren’t you? But you’re
all talk. Frankly, it’s amusing.”
“Don’t patronize me. Even if I’d never met your brother, I’d be more respectable
than you simply because of your birth.”
--Mariam is proud.
“Are you still going on about that? It’s going to be ashes to ashes for both of
us.”
These are two Eves. One ruthlessly deceives Adam into The Fall, seducing him.
One accidentally leads Adam into The Fall, betraying his trust. Because of their
circumstances, both are flawed. Both were made of earth.