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.......It is Midsummer Eve, June 23, the night preceding one of the most festive holidays in Sweden. Servants on the estate of a count celebrate the occasion with spirited dancing in a barn. In the kitchen of the count’s house, Christine, 35, a cook, is working at a brick stove near a wall lined with copper, tin, and iron utensils. Jean, 30, a valet, enters and sets down a pair of tall riding boots which he is to polish for the count. Jean has just returned from dropping the count at the train station for a trip to see relatives living nearby. Seating himself at one end of a white-pine table, Jean begins discussing the behavior of Miss Julie, 25, the count’s daughter, who is in the barn dancing. ....... After parking the carriage, Jean says, he went into the barn and saw her cavorting with the gamekeeper. When she saw Jean, she immediately approached him and asked him to dance a waltz. .......It is unbecoming of lady of her station to be dancing with servants, Jean declares. While cooking, Christine notes that Miss Julie has been acting strangely since the county attorney broke off his engagement to her. Jean says he witnessed the very incident causing the breakup. Miss Julie, who was “training” her fiancé as a master would train his dog, forced him to jump over her horsewhip. Twice he did it and twice the whip cut him. When he was supposed to jump again, he took the whip from her, broke it into pieces, and walked off. .......Christine serves Jean some kidney cut from a veal roast. When he complains that she hasn’t warmed his plate, she scolds him playfully. He says she would be lucky to get a man like him, who is thought by people to be her beau anyway. (In fact, the conversation between Jean and Christine implies that they indeed have an understanding pledging them to marriage.) While Christine has beer and Sean some claret, Miss Julie walks in and asks Sean to dance with her again. Although he warns her that they should not be seen dancing together–people will get the wrong impression–he dances with her anyway. While they talk, he slips in a French word or two, which surprises Julie. He explains that he picked up the language while working as a sommelier (wine steward) in Switzerland. .......Christine falls asleep on a chair. Miss Julie asks Jean for a beer, saying she is not averse to sampling the drink of the common folk, and they both have one together. She makes him toast her, then boldly asks him to kiss her shoe, then her hand. She tells him he is handsome–a Don Juan, perhaps, or a Joseph. Her coquetry arouses him. But when he attempts to kiss her, she slaps his ear. Her playful behavior–she is forward one moment, coy the next–is dangerous, he says. He is only a man. And what will people say? As he works on the count's boots, Jean again warns her about being seen with a servant. .......After Christine goes to bed, Miss Julie asks Jean whether he has ever been in love. In fact, he says, he has been–with Miss Julie. He explains that when he was a child, he saw her when he strayed onto her father’s property. (Jean was the son of a farmer who worked for the owner of a nearby property.) .......“I lived in the cotter’s hovel, together with seven other children, and a pig–out there on the grey plain, where there isn’t a single tree. But from our windows I could see the wall round the count’s park, and apple trees above it. That was the Garden of Eden, and many fierce angels were guarding it with flaming swords. Nevertheless, I and some other boys found our way to the Tree of Life. . . . [Inside] I caught sight of a pink dress and a pair of white stockings–that was you!” .......The following Sunday, he says, he put on his best clothes and went to church just to see her there. .......In a moment, the servants celebrating Midsummer’s Eve come toward the house singing. Jean tells her they must not to see her with him. If they do, he says, “you are lost!” When he invites her to his room, saying he will bolt the door so no one can enter, she accepts his offer. .......Later, after the servants are gone, Jean and Miss Julie return to the kitchen, which is in disarray from the servants’ reveling. She becomes slightly paranoid, believing Jean when he suggests that the servants know she and Jean were together. It is clear from their conversation that they had been sexually intimate in their brief time in Jean’s room. Jean asks her a leading question: “Do you think it is possible to stay here?” She answers no, of course, but wonders where they can go. .......Jean suggests that they flee to the lake region of northern Switzerland, where he will open a hotel and she will be the “mistress of everything.” Warming further to Jean, she asks him to begin calling her simply “Julie,” but he says he cannot while still a servant in the employ of a count. They discuss his hotel scheme animatedly until he discovers she cannot back their enterprise financially. He then says the plan is off. Miss Julie cries hysterically and says she cannot face those on the estate who know about their sexual encounter. They will tell the count. Kneeling down, she presses her hands together in an attitude of prayer and exclaims, “O God in heaven, make an end of this wretched life! Take me out of the filth into which I am sinking! Save me! Save me!” .......Jean says he feels sorry for her, but he also disavows his previous statements about loving her. He admits only that he once had “the same nasty thoughts that all boys have.” .......They argue and insult each other, but Jean gets the better of her, telling her that he is the superior one and she the lowly menial. She only wants to shield herself from disgrace, he says, by convincing herself that she loves him. However, he then speaks again of going away with her. This prospect revives her hopes of escaping shame, and she drinks wine while telling him about her background “so that we know each other right to the bottom before we begin the journey together.” .......She then says her mother, who was not of noble birth, believed in women’s rights and women’s independence. .......“My mother wanted to bring me up in a perfectly natural state, and at the same time I was to learn everything that a boy is taught, so that I might prove that a woman is just as good as a man. I was dressed as a boy, and was taught how to handle a horse, but could have nothing to do with the cows. I had to groom and harness and go hunting on horseback. I was even forced to learn something about agriculture. And all over the estate men were to do women’s work, and women to do men’s–with the result that everything went to pieces and we became the laughingstock of the whole neighborhood.” .......Finally, her father asserted himself, Miss Julie says, and made everything conform to his wishes. Her mother then developed a mysterious illness, suffered convulsions, and exhibited odd behavior. Then came a fire which burned all of the family’s property–the day after the insurance on the property expired. All was lost. However, at the urging of her mother, her father borrowed money from a brick manufacturer and rebuilt the estate. But it turned out that the money was really her mother’s. Secretly wealthy, she had invested the money with the manufacturer, who was also her secret lover. Thus, Miss Julie’s father was indebted to his wife’s lover. The upshot of it all was that Miss Julie’s mother was the one who set the fire in the first place–to force her husband into indebtedness and thereby gain revenge. When he discovered her machinations, he made her life a living hell. .......“From her I learned to suspect and hate men–for she hated the whole sex, as you have probably heard–and I promised her on my oath that I would never become a man’s slave.” .......Miss Julie, who continues to drink, then deeply laments her intimacy with Jean, saying, “Oh, how I regret what I have done! How I regret! If at least you loved me.” .......In response, Jean has another change of heart, refusing to abscond with her but instead advising her to leave the country by herself. She goes out to get traveling money and dress in the appropriate clothes. .......It is now early morning. Christine enters the kitchen. She is dressed for church. After announcing that she plans to leave the count’s employ in October, she suggests that Jean leave with her and get a job as a janitor or perhaps as a messenger for a government office. She also reminds him that he agreed to go to church with her. Then she goes back to her room to fetch her Bible. .......Moments later, Miss Julie returns wearing traveling clothes and carrying a cage containing her pet finch, which she says she cannot leave behind. When she mentions that she obtained some money, Jean says he will go with her after all. But they must leave immediately, before the count returns. However, Jean says, she must leave the finch behind. Miss Julie balks at this suggestion. Rather than abandon the poor bird, she says, she would rather have Jean kill it. With hesitation, Jean removes the bird from the cage, retrieves an axe from among the kitchen utensils, and unfeelingly kills it. The shock of this moment is too much for her. .......“Kill me too!” She is screaming now. “Kill me! You who can take the life of an innocent creature without turning a hair! Oh, I hate and despise you! There is blood between us! Cursed be the hour when I first met you! Cursed be the hour when I came to life in my mother’s womb!” .......Christine enters and Jean goes to another room to shave. When Miss Julie asks Christine to help her–even come away with her to see the world–Christine is unmoved. When Jean tells Christine he is not going to church after all, she leaves. .......The count returns and enters another part of the house. When he rings a bell connected to the kitchen, Jean responds by speaking into a tube. He receives orders to bring up coffee and his pair of boots. .......“What do I do?” Miss Julie asks. .......Jean says he does not know, then says, yes, he does know. .......“Like this?” she says, picking up his razor. .......Moments later, Miss Julie kills herself.  Setting
Characters
Themes . Theme 1 A woman’s attempt to overcome the gender, cultural, and environmental forces acting upon her brings about her downfall. Miss Julie first orders her fiancé to perform a silly trick, like a trained dog, and loses him. She then crosses forbidden social and sexual boundaries and ends up losing her life to her own hysteria, paranoia, and panic. Theme 2 The centuries-old barrier between the aristocracy and the common folk is beginning to collapse. Miss Julie, confused about her social and cultural identity, attends a barn dance for servants, drinks beer instead of wine, and submits sexually to a valet, Jean. Jean learns French, drinks wine, speaks of purchasing a title to elevate his status, and sometimes treats Miss Julie as an inferior. But he, too, exhibits a measure of confusion about his role, indicated by his willingness to snap to the commands of the count. The cook, Christine, does not venture outside her traditional role as a menial, indicating that the old system–though dying–is dying grudgingly. Theme 3 Every man and woman is a mercurial creature, sometimes acting impulsively in response to the hereditary and environmental influences that motivate them. Both Miss Julie and Jean act unpredictably from time to time, suggesting a certain course of action one moment and disavowing it the next. Theme 4 Every man and woman is psychologically and physiologically complex. This theme is similar to Theme 3. Often, it is not clear which motive rules a person at any given time. Is it lust that motivates Jean to invite Julie to his room? Or does he want to lower her to a reduced social status? Is it cruelty? Is it the desire to dominate? Does Miss Julie kill herself out of fear of her father? Or does she do it out of wounded pride, loneliness, or a feeling of powerlessness in a male-dominated world? Theme 5 Only the fittest survive. Unlike Jean and Christine, Miss Julie fails to adapt to the circumstances over which, ultimately, she has little or no control. This Darwinian motif is in keeping with Strindberg's literary naturalism. Climax . The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of Miss Julie occurs, according to the first definition, when Miss Julie accepts Jean's invitation to go to his room. (Their conversation when they later return to the kitchen implies that they had sexual relations in the room. However, because Strindberg does not depict this implied encounter on the stage, it cannot technically be regarded as the climax of the play. Consequently, it is Julie's decision to go to the room that is the turning point of the play.) According to the second definition, the climax occurs when Miss Julie takes up Jean's razor to commit suicide. Symbolism
. While Miss Julie trifles with Jean, she suggests that he may be a “Don Juan” or a “Joseph.” Don Juan was a fictional womanizer in Spanish folk tales who seduced a young woman of Seville and killed her father in a duel. Later, the spirit of the father, springing to life from a statue of him, gained revenge by taking Don Juan to hell. The first published account of the tale was a 1630 play, The Seducer of Seville, believed to have been written by Tirso de Molina. Subsequently, Don Juan became the central character in numerous other works, including Molière’s Don Juan, or The Stone Feast (1665), Thomas Shadwell’s The Libertine (1675), Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787), Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1819-1824), and Shaw’s Man and Superman (1903). Joseph is a biblical figure who refused to yield a woman’s temptation. The story of the incident and its consequences is in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 39, Verses 1-23. Here is what happened: While in Egypt, Joseph works for Potiphar, the Pharaoh’s chief steward. Potiphar’s wife is attracted to Joseph, a very handsome man, and repeatedly attempts to seduce him. Just as often, he rejects her advances. In retaliation, Potiphar’s wife tells her husband that Joseph tried to ravish her, and Potiphar imprisons Joseph. Joseph later gains his freedom after interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream. . Strindberg labeled Miss Julie a naturalistic tragedy–that is, a tragedy that adheres to principles of a literary movement called naturalism. Naturalism Naturalism developed in France in the 19th Century as an extreme form of realism. It was inspired in part by the scientific determinism of Charles Darwin, an Englishman, and the economic determinism of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, both Germans. Four Frenchmen–Hippolyte Taine, Edmond and Jules Goncourt, and Emile Zola–applied the principles of scientific and economic determinism to literature to create literary naturalism. According to its followers, literary naturalism has the following basic tenets:
(2) Human beings have no free will, or very little of it, because heredity and environment are so powerful in determining the course of human action. (3) Human beings, like lower animals, have no soul. Religion and morality are irrelevant. (Strindberg, an atheist when he wrote Miss Julie, later converted to Christianity under the influence of the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.) (4) A literary work should present life exactly as it is, without preachment, judgment, or embellishment. In this respect, naturalism is akin to realism. However, naturalism goes further than realism in that it presents a more detailed picture of everyday life. Whereas the realist writer omits insignificant details when depicting a particular scene, a naturalist writer generally includes them. He wants the scene to be as “natural” as possible. The naturalist writer also attempts to be painstakingly objective and detached. Rather than manipulating characters as if they were puppets, the naturalist writer prefers to observe the characters as if they were animals in the wild and then report on their activity. Finally, naturalism attempts to present dialogue as spoken in everyday life. Rather than putting “unnatural” wording in the mouth of a character, the naturalist writer attempts to reproduce the speech patterns of people in a particular time and place. . Tragedy Miss Julie is a tragedy because Miss Julie suffers a downfall (suicide). However, it is not a tragedy in the traditional sense. Here’s why. In a classical Greek play, such as Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, a character falls to ruin in part because of an error or lapse in moral judgment. But in Strindberg’s play, Miss Julie’s downfall results from the irresistible forces (heredity and environment) acting upon her. It can be argued that she errs when she chooses to stray across sexual and social boundaries. But Strindberg would probably counter that the error resulted from the instinctual and environmental forces that drive her, not from a moral or rational decision. She is like a moth attracted to a fatal flame. . Strindberg completed Miss Julie in 1888 and staged it in 1889. Staging
Why
Jean Incites Miss Julie to Suicide
Johan August Strindberg was
born in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 22, 1849. He was the fourth child
of a once-prominent aristocrat who worked for a steamship line after suffering
financial reversals. His mother was a waitress who had married Strindberg’s
father after working for him as a servant. Strindberg studied medicine
and religion at the University of Uppsala but did not graduate. While struggling
to get published, he worked as a freelance journalist and in various other
jobs, including a prestigious position as a librarian at the Swedish Royal
Library. His first play, Mäster Olof, was published in 1872
and his first novel, The Red Room, in 1879. His major plays include
Lucky Peter’s Travels, 1881; The Father, 1887; Miss Julie,
1888; The Stronger, 1889; The Creditors, 1890; To Damascus,
1898-1904; There are Crimes and Crimes, 1899; The Dance of Death,
1901; A Dream Play, 1902; and The Ghost Sonata, 1907. His
autobiography, The Son of a Servant, appeared in 1886 and 1887.
Among his other novels are The People of Hernsö, 1887; By
the Open Sea, 1890; Black Banners, 1907; and The Great Highway,
1909. Throughout his life, Strindberg suffered recurring mental problems–including
depression, anxiety, and paranoia–which he wrote about in an autobiographical
work, Inferno (1898). These problems may have been caused by his
repeated use of absinthe, a strong liquor made from wormwood. Wormwood
contains a poisonous chemical, thujone, which can trigger all of the upsetting
symptoms Strindberg experienced. Strindberg was an avowed atheist at the
time that he wrote Miss Julie. However, he later converted to Christianity
after studying works by the Swedish scientist, theologian, philosopher,
and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). Strindberg died in Stockholm
on May 14, 1912.
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