Despite their differences in character, Antigone and Miss Julie encounter the same fate.

Miss Julie set in the late 19th century, originally written by August Strindberg, is a tragic play, originally written in Swedish, and later translated by Helen Cooper in 1992. It is a naturalistic tragedy set in Midsummer Eve in the 1880s. Miss Julie (1888) is considered Strindberg's most famous work. It is acknowledged for its stylistic innovations and is a depiction of the play's twenty-five-year-old tragic heroine; doomed to a cruel demise. Antigone, conversely, an adaptation of Sophocles’s play, revolves around the plays heroine, Antigone and her conflict with her uncle, Creon. Later translated by Jean Anouilh, the play is considered one of his most often produced works till date. Although both plays end with the death of the leading character, the circumstances by which they occur are very diverse.

It is essential to observe the lives of the playwrights and see to what extent their own thoughts, beliefs and feelings are reflected in writing. This is predominant in the case of Strindberg, in particular the rise of his misogynist attitudes and his mental health condition. Strindberg believed that women were an inferior form, which can be seen through reading his preface to the play where he states:

"She (Miss Julie) is the victim of false belief - namely that woman - this stunted form of human being compared to man, the lord of creation, the creator the civilization - is equal to man or might become so."

As is clear from this quote, Strindberg believed fervently in the inferiority of women to men.

The character of Julie is what Strindberg would describe as a ‘half-woman’; she does not know her place in society and attempts to dominate a male. Strindberg's drama focuses on the downfall of the aristocrat, Julie, a misfit in her society. Julie, like Antigone, rebels against the restrictions placed on her as a woman and as a member of the aristocratic. From the start of the play, her actions are shown to estrange her peer class and distress the servants. She displays a deliberate discount for class and gender conventions, contradicting herself by claiming at one moment that class differences should not subsist and the next demanding appropriate treatment as a woman of nobility.

“Because you see … with the hawks.”

“But I’m a child … could ever be!”

Antigone similarly is the play’s tragic heroine. One’s first image of Antigone is one of her being emaciated, introverted, and an unruly brat. Although headstrong, she is considered the absolute opposite of her sister Ismene who is considered both attractive and passive. In the course of the play, Antigone is shown to have a boyish physique and it is always made known that she curses her girlhood. She is the direct opposite of a theatrical heroine, as personified by Ismene. Antigone has always been known ...

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“Because you see … with the hawks.”

“But I’m a child … could ever be!”

An engagement broken due to her literal attempt at treating her fiancé like a dog, Strindberg makes the reader believe, is a result of Julie’s upbringing which along with resulting in such behaviour, is the reason behind her extreme discontent towards men and her trepidation towards sex. It is this hatred that leads her to endeavour to enslave them sadistically and the cause of her sudden change in behaviour from somewhat demeanour to a “wild” woman. It is this rejection that drives her to make shameless advances towards her valet, Jean. She is socially superior to Jean but that does not stand in her way in trying to assert herself over him from the very start of the play when she demands that Jean dances with her.

“You are not … play with fire?”

Haemon, Creon's son, heir to the throne of Thebes, proposes marriage to Antigone and becomes unfalteringly loyal to her. On questioning his love, he professes his feeling with immense passion. Simultaneously honouring her solitude and freedom. Despite their love for each other, a sense of doom seems to follow them. The Chorus desolately notices that in his engagement, Haemon has earned the characteristic of dying a premature death. After swearing his loyalty, Antigone sends him away saying she will never become his wife, as she knows that she is to die under Creon’s predicament. However, Haemon stays with Antigone till she dies proceeding to take his own life to stay with his beloved in a last embrace. This shows the contrast between the two characters where one, Julie, ill-treats men as if they were animals compared to Antigone who surrenders her love in order to abide to her faith and family duties.

Jean, a servant in that society, aspires to belong to the same aristocracy Julie belongs to, thus arises an interest in her. The pair is shown to tell of a dream they have, which seems to be almost prophetic. Julie’s dream is that she is on top of a high pillar unable to get down but longing to touch the ground, almost afraid to see what may come ahead if she is unable to do so. She says if she did reach the ground, she would “want to sink lower, lower.” Jean in contrast dreams of lying under a tree and longing to be on the tree instead, high up enabling him to see the horizon. The only thing standing between that from happening is the branch, which appears to be too high to reach out to, but he says, “I know if I can only reach it… like a ladder”. Jean’s “First branch” is metaphorically Miss Julie. His ultimate desire is to rise into a higher social class, and sees Julie as a means of making that possible. The dreams correspond, as Julie longs to be subjugated. By the closing stages of the play, Jean has complete ascendancy over Julie. He has successfully progressed from a mere pawn to a wine drinker. He conquers Julie sexually, consequently mentally, to a point where she is pleading with him:

“Help me. Give me orders… order me.”

This shows Julie’s vulnerability and ability to be influenced by anyone. She has no control over emotions and is thus prejudiced by Jean to go ahead with what he desires to do with her. In deciding to execute the rites of the burial of her dead brother, Polynices, Antigone is inclined by two considerations. Her religious obligations that she perform the burial rites despite knowing that her action will signify a violation of the order issued by Creon and the fact that the dead man is her brother, and as she continually tells Ismene and Creon, she cannot desert him as it repudiates everything she stands for. She claims that no leader regardless of the power he bestows can stop her from carrying out her family duties.

“Isn’t a … laws of heaven.”

During her encounters with Creon, Antigone bluntly claims that the command banning the burial of her brother did not come from the gods. “I intend to give. … God commands.” She accepts her punishment on the way to win the goodwill of the gods and to uphold her own sanity. In the occasion that she failed to proceed, the shame caused would be intolerable above all believing that her deceased brother would under no circumstances be at rest.

"As for me, I will … gods established."

Antigone is accepted for the fact that she prioritises her consecrated duty to her deceased brother above all considerations. She is stimulated by a holy ardour and is prepared to incur the death sentence for the sake of her convictions. This alone shows that Antigone unlike Julie knows her priorities and is not influenced by people including her family members to go against her morals and beliefs, especially in times when she is determined to implement her values.

Julie yearns for saving her name by killing herself, but lacks the ability to make the decision. She is made to apprehend the fact that she is inferior to Jean. She relies on Jean to tell her to take her life and even goes to the extent as to thank him for his consent. Strindberg’s Miss Julie shows the thespian rise of a servant, and it’s equivalent effects on “Her Ladyship” Miss Julie, who was influential through her social status, but abridged for mere reason of her gender. Antigone never regretted her decision of proceeding with the burial and never once did she vaguely think of submission or an apology in order to flee death. Accordingly, Antigone died as a solitary martyr and attained a tragic stature by undertaking her revered sense of duty. Perceptive, idealistic, self-righteous Antigone refused to compromise.

Despite their differences in character, one being a woman from aristocracy, scarred by her upbringing and caught in a whirlwind of one’s status in society, another, a headstrong sister, who rebelled against her uncle in order to ensue her duties to her family, they both encountered the same destiny, a doomed demise, death.

Miss Julie, August Strindberg, translated by Helen Cooper, published by Methuen Drama.