In 1859, less than thirty years before Strindberg wrote Miss Julie, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, a book that change scientific thought on the subjects of development and ecological edition, Darwin identified a process he called natural selection. The idea of public Darwinism became important to the Naturalist literary movement from which Miss Julie takes place. In Strindberg’s play, the concept of social Darwinism can be seen in the fall of Julie, who is clearly unfit for a higher position and cannot survive. Jean’s ability to rise, while questionable, is presented more confident; he is stronger and as a result more likely to improve his position in society.
The social position of the lower-class was improving at the time Strindberg’s work appeared as a servant. Workers in Sweden began to strike for higher wages and shorter workdays. In 1881, a law was passed to limit child labor in factories, but it was not until 1909 that all adult males in Sweden were given the right to vote. The possibility of social movement was becoming greater at this time as well. In his preface to Miss Julie, Strindberg, himself the child of a servant, wrote of “the old. . . nobility giving way to a new nobility of nerve and intellect.” This can be seen in the character of Jean, who wants to rise up to a different position in life.
The position of women in society was also an important issue as well. In 1845 that women in Sweden were given the right to own property. In 1846 women were also given the right to hold certain specific jobs such as teaching, and finally, in 1862 the right to vote. In the 1870s, women were let into the universities for the first time, although they were not allowed to study theology or law. In general, women were gradually becoming, at least in the eyes of the law, more independent and closer in equality with men. Strindberg himself showed mixed feelings about the changing roles of women because he himself married three times and all have children but he wives had all this aspirations to be actress. In many ways he feels sorry for women, Strindberg placed more importance on the sanctity of marriage and spoke in his preface to Miss Julie about the rise of the “man-hating half-woman.” A general opposition to feminism is also apparent in Miss Julie. The play is an extremely interesting comment on class difference and human psychology and as Strindberg often stressed, under all our individual baggage we are all people.
The rise and fall of the Paris Commune in 1871 became a political awakening for the young Strindberg, and he started to see politics as a conflict between the upper- and lower classes. Strindberg was admired by the working classes as a radical writer. Strindberg as a radical writer provides all kinds of different factors that relates to Miss Julie as the playing style, the fraule sexual content and the psychological level to the play for example does Miss Julie kill herself because of her ‘bad’ mother or her father’s mistaken ideas on how to bring up a daughter or is it her own character.
Strindberg did other plays as well including ‘The Father’ and ‘The Dream Play’. Miss Julie is one of his first naturalistic plays as he went on to do other plays for example ‘The Dream Play’ doesn’t have a clear story and its completely non-naturlistic while Miss Julie you could understand the story plot because naturalistic tragdy play, while Strindberg wrote this play he got divorced with his first wife Siri von Essen and had weird dreams when he got divorced. Futhermore Strindberg shows in ‘The Father’ while the father's love is concerned with the development of the child, the mother is interested mainly in the possession of the child therefore she fights the man with every means at her command. ‘The Father’ contains two basic truths, the motherhood has much praised, and hailed as a wonderful thing, is in reality very often the greatest influence in the life of the child while in the play the mother doesn’t show the love for the child only the possession.
