The Seventh Veil of Salome

Nancy is the antagonist in the novel and a round and dynamic character. Significant plot points unfold from her point of view, and readers have access to her emotions and motivations. Nancy is a young woman in her late twenties who longs to become a famous Hollywood actress, a goal fueled by her desire for fame and fortune but also by her father’s dreams. Nancy’s father wanted his daughter to become famous and was disappointed and embittered when she did not. That his wishes continue to shape her motivations and actions renders her a somewhat tragic figure while demonstrating the difficulties women of the time faced in pursuing independent lives. Nancy’s agency is further limited by the fact that she does not have money, power, or influence; she often has to rely on men as intermediaries and utilize her sexuality to pursue her goals.

Nancy’s thwarted ambitions render her bitter and resentful, and she fixates on Vera as the obstacle supposedly in her way. She is volatile, quick-tempered, and impulsive, and she relishes “that feeling of being in control, of hurting and twisting and mangling” (105). She often acts without thinking or considering the consequences: She jeopardizes her relationship with Jay by showing anger and jealousy, and she ends up being blackmailed because she posed for nude photographs. She grows increasingly erratic and desperate as she sees her chances for fame diminishing and ends up causing great pain and tragedy when Benny accidentally shoots Jay, revealing The Dangers of Jealousy.

Nancy is thus a complex character who is shown to be responsible for a violent death but whose anger over her lack of control over her own life is framed as justifiable. Her decision to testify against Benny at the murder trial and then “tr[y] to spin her newfound notoriety into an acting career” reflects both her stubborn resilience and her inability to mature and learn from her past actions (306).

Salome is the second protagonist in the novel. Unlike Vera and Nancy, she is a fictional portrait of a historical figure. Salome is a beautiful princess from a dynasty of client kings during the era of the Roman Empire; she lives in wealth and luxury as a “haughty and capricious girl who [is] twice a princess” (12). However, her family’s hold on power is precarious, and there is constant scheming and feuding at court. Salome also has a tense dynamic with her mother and stepfather because they often pressure her to act according to their own ambitions and desires. Salome is willful and accustomed to getting whatever she wants, but she is also shrewd and psychologically astute. She is able to manipulate people around her, especially men, in order to pursue her own ambitions and goals—a vital skill in an era where women’s agency is severely curtailed.

Salome is transformed when she meets Jokanaan and falls in love with him despite the many obstacles that would prevent such a relationship (the two are the lynchpin of the novel’s exploration of Fated Love Despite Obstacles). Salome is passionate and bold, unafraid to propose ideas such as running away together. In this, she is willing to risk everything to be with the man she loves even though he is hesitant to even admit that he reciprocates her feelings. However, Salome is also ambitious, and she desires power and agency for herself. She is tempted to collude in Agrippa’s plan because he promises to make her queen in her own right—“queen of all the lands [her] father governed” (247). Because of her ambitions and her frustration that Jokanaan will not abandon his principles in order to be with her, Salome makes the choice to ask for Jokanaan’s death. This decision does not come easily to Salome: Up until the very last moment, she “wishes she had not danced. She wishes there were no choices to make” (302). However, Salome ultimately decides to accept violence as a tool to realize her goals and ambitions.

The resolution of Salome’s character is ambiguous: She is depicted as achieving her goal of ruling as a queen, living in great luxury but also haunted by a sense of loss and potential regret. This ambiguity underscores the difficulty of capturing the “truth” of a historical and cultural figure of Salome’s stature—particularly when gendered power dynamics have heavily shaped depictions of that figure. It also evokes the compromises women make to attain power within a patriarchal system, a recurring motif in the novel.

Jay is a significant secondary character and the focus of one of the novel’s central conflicts: He inspires the romantic rivalry between Nancy and Vera since he is initially engaged in a casual relationship with Nancy before falling in love with Vera.

Jay is a handsome and charismatic young man who readily inspires love and desire in the women who encounter him. He is well-educated (he studied classics at Princeton), sensitive, and artistic, bonding with Vera over their shared love of music. Jay is somewhat rebellious and unconventional since he wants to pursue a career as a jazz musician rather than follow the expected career path into his family business. Likewise, Jay pursues a relationship with Vera even though the two lovers come from very different cultural and economic backgrounds. However, he is not immune to social expectations and is initially unwilling to defy his family by dating Vera publicly, admitting, “I wouldn’t be able to afford my car or this place if it wasn’t for the allowance my mother sends” (257). Jay’s economic dependence makes him inclined to capitulate to his family’s demands.

Jay does eventually develop to the point where he is willing to choose Vera despite social and familial pressures. He tells her, “[L]et’s choose each other, even if it’s reckless, even if it’s silly” (299). However, Jay’s life ends just as he reaches the point where he is going to live on his own terms. His character is tragic because he dies young, beautiful, and in love with a seemingly perfect future stretching out ahead of him. That his death is a mistake heightens its pathos and provides a point of contrast to Jokanaan, his counterpart in the Salome storyline.