I often have dreams in which I can escape from my social position and am free of my title as Count’s daughter. Society both excites and fuels me and frightens and disgusts me, and I wish there was a way to be rid of it, though I also wish to please it.
My mother, a woman not born into nobility, hated her position too. She never wanted to marry my father, but she ended up doing so anyway. She was a feminist, raised with the ideas of equality and women’s freedom and she brought me up to be a reflection of that. As a child I was made to wear boy’s clothes, take care of the horses and taught to saddle and hunt.
With her in charge, and with all the women servants on the estate doing the jobs of men, the establishment became near ruined and we became the laughing stock. Following the fire, when my mother made Daddy borrow money from one her friends – who tuned out to be Mummy’s lover – things have never been the same. And now, after that recent mishap, that lapse in self-control, thing never will be the same. What have I done?
Miss Julie according to her creator – August Strindberg.
Miss Julie is the protagonist and heroine of August Strindberg’s 1880 play of the same name, Miss Julie. In his preface to the play Strindberg discusses what motivates the character of Julie: “she is stimulated by her mother’s primary instincts, her father raising her incorrectly, her own nature, and the influence of her fiancé on her weak and degenerate brain. Also more particularly: the festive atmosphere of midsummer night, her father’s absence, her monthly indisposition, her preoccupation with animals, the provocative effect of dancing, the magical midsummer twilight, the powerfully aphrodisiac influence of flowers, and finally, the chance that drives the couple together into a room alone – plus the boldness of the aroused man.”
Strindberg, with his interest in psychology, considers the character of Miss Julie to be mentally sick. The symptoms of this sickness are similar to what we would today consider hysteria. It was traditionally considered to be a female disease and was often used to refer to a disturbance in female sexuality, or more specifically if a woman refused to accept her sexual desires.
Miss Julie through the eyes of an actor playing her.
When we meet Miss Julie at the beginning of the play, she is downhearted following the breaking off of her marriage engagement. Alcohol soon brings out the weaknesses she is feeling in a conversation she has with Jean, her father’s valet, and her traditional status begins to transfer to him.
Throughout the play there is a constant status struggle between Miss Julie and Jean. He impresses her with his vast knowledge and handsome features and she starts to make advances towards her servant. Jean in turn shies away, trying to convince her that it is not a good idea. The power struggle continues until, at the climax of the play, Jean takes advantage of his mistress and the couple sleep together.
Miss Julie is left feeling helpless, her previously dominant character left behind, and she turns to Jean for help. She contemplates suicide, but is not even strong enough to follow that through. Miss Julie is experiencing severe depression, confusion and humiliation following her sexual encounter with her servant and brought on by the harsh society in which she lives. She wants only to be free of her social ties and commitments but sees no possible way out.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
August Strindberg, Miss Julie (Methuen, London, 1992)
August Strindberg, Miss Julie, (Methuen, 1992), preface
