Miss Julie

Miss JulieAugust Strindberg

August Strindberg (1849-1912) Johan August Strindberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 22, 1849.

His father was a middle class merchant and, his mother a former servant. he suffered through an emotionally difficult childhood; when he was four his father went bankrupt, and when he was fourteen his mother died. A year after her death, his father married the family housekeeper.

Strindberg was an avowed atheist at the time that he wroteMiss 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.Henrik Ibsen kept a portrait of the younger writer above his desk, and is said to have remarked, "I cannot write a line without that madman standing and staring down at me with those mad eyes."Miss JulieMiss Julie is a stage play in the form of a naturalistic tragedy. The drama centers on a twenty-five-year-old aristocratic woman who becomes the victim of hereditary and environmental forces.

August completedMiss Juliein 1888 and staged its first production in 1889. The play, written in Swedish, was published in expurgated form in Copenhagen in 1889 by Joseph Seligmann (1836-1904), a Swedish publisher. The deleted passages have since been restored.The play was banned throughout much of Europe and was not produced in Sweden during 19th century due to frank portrayal of sexuality.

Characters Miss Julie: Twenty-five-year old daughter of a count.Jean: Thirty-year-old valet of the count.Christine: Thirty-five-year-old cook.Julies Father The countJulies Mother: Woman who reared Julie to hate men.Count Attorney: Man who broke off his engagement to Miss Julie. The servants(last four characters dont appear on the stage)Diana: Julies dogSerena: Julies finch

SettingThe action takes place in the kitchen of a counts country estate in Sweden on Midsummer Eve, June 23, and early Midsummer Day, June 24. Midsummer Day is a secular and religious holiday in Europe, celebrating the summer solstice, agricultural traditions, and the feast of St. John the Baptist.

NaturalismNaturalism: naturalism refers specifically to a literary movement that took place in America, England, and France during the late 1800s and early 1900s, which produced a unique type of realistic fiction.

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 FrenchmenHippolyte Taine, Edmond and Jules Goncourt, and Emile Zolaapplied the principles of scientific and economic determinism to literature to create literary naturalism. Darwinism

Charles Darwin (1809-82) was a Naturalist in the scientific sense of the word.

He published The Origin of Species in 1859.

Natural selection: those members of a species best adapted to survive in their environment are more likely to reproduce and thereby pass their traits on to the next generation.

Darwin encouraged a rational and critical outlook based upon empirical evidence.

His theory was shocking and controversial in its challenge to traditional religious beliefs.Emile zola (1840-1902)

French novelist and playwright.

Influenced by Darwin and the other scientific developments of the century, Zola proposed that literature should reflect the principles of scientific Naturalism:- Determinism: all behaviour is determined by genetics and environment.- The writers task was to depict reality as objectively and as scientifically as possible.

Naturalism on stageZola published his manifesto on this subject in 1881, in an essay titled Naturalism on the Stage.

He claimed to be reflecting the scientific and rational spirit of the age in which he lived; the impulse of the century, he argued, is toward naturalism.

I am waiting for someone to put a man of flesh and bones on the stage, taken from reality, scientifically analyzed, and described without one lie. I am waiting for environment to determine the characters and the characters to act according to the logic of facts combined with logic of their own disposition. I am waiting, finally, until the development of naturalism already achieved in the novel takes over the stage, until the playwrights return to the source of science and modem arts, to the study of nature, to the anatomy of man (1881: 10)

Naturalism in Miss JulieStrindberg described Miss Julie as the first Naturalistic Tragedy in Swedish Drama.Heredity and environment are the major forces that shape human beings: Miss Julie, for example, responds partly to her inborn female instinct for male companionship and partly to her environmentally induced hatred of men. Consequently, she both desires and despises Jean, causing her deep internal conflict.Survival of the fittest; Jean survived while Julie committed the crime of suicide.

ContStrindbergs plays often focus on a fight for dominance (or even for survival) which Strindberg characterised as the battle of the brains: a battle between two implacably hostile minds, bound to each other by desire and hatred (Robinson 1998: xi) (Miss Julie and Jean).Survival in Strindbergs universe is not a matter of morality: The naturalist has abolished guilt with God.

The servant Jean is the type who founds a species He has already risen in the world, and is strong enough not to worry about using other peoples shoulders to climb on. his tendency is to say what is likely to prove to his own advantage rather than what is true. (1888: 96-7)

ContAs a naturalistic drama,Miss Juliefocuses on Julie and Jean's struggle for survival in their society. Stnndberg claimed that the basis for the plot ofMiss Juliewas a true story he had heard of a young noblewoman who had sexual relations with a servant, although that young woman did not commit suicide. Strindberg lived in a time in which gender and class roles were becoming more fluid, and the play reflects the conflicts that are inevitable in a society struggling with change.Naturalists view individuals as being at the mercy of biological and socioeconomic forces; Miss Julie suffered from her desires (biological) and also environmental forces in the shape of Jean. She has internal and external forces.

Not Fitting into Any Classit is observed that Julie wasnt able to fit either in the upper class or in the lower class. Its seen that she is found dancing with the servants which opposes the societys rules existing during that time. She stays behind to mingle with the servants at the dance instead of going with her father to the Midsummer's Eve celebrations as she was unable to face her family after the humiliation of breaking her engagement.Julie not only dances with Jean who belongs to the lower class but forms associations with him. Soon after the dance Miss Julie and Jean continue till late secretly to have beer where she tells him to treat her equal.

Gender InequalityAugust Strindbergs Miss Julie portrays the 18th Victorian society, where women were always considered inferior to men.This inequality is primarily projected out in Miss Julie which is a naturalist tragedy. The protagonist of the play-Miss Julie faces troubles innumerable only because she is a woman and it is highly ironical that though she belonged to the upper stratum of the society she became a victim of oppression by Jean, a valet in her Manor House, who represented the male dominated society. Stindbergian misogyny has garnished the entire play and Strindbergs thoughts are voiced out through the Jean, the antagonist of the play.Male DominanceStrindbergian misogyny is reflected and voiced out the best through the character Jean, the antagonist of the play. Male domination has been a purposeful theme introduced by August Strindberg to exhibit his misogynistic attitude .The opening of the play starts with a dialogue which brings in his hatred towards Miss Julie; To-night Miss Julie is crazy again, absolutely crazy

Christine, though a minor character of the play becomes a victim of Male Dominance indirectly. She had to tolerate the flirting episodes which were going on between Jean, her fianc and her Mistress, Julie.Appearance and Reality-False ModestyMiss Julie falls prey to the false modesty of the valet Jean. The striking difference that the audience or the readers notice in Jeans behavior is the way he exhibits false modesty towards the onset of the play and he goes to the extremes of kissing her shoes.

Jean reminds Miss Julie of local gossips and warns her that he belongs to the lower stratum of the society. Through the exhibition of false modesty and humility, he attracts Miss Julie and exploits her to a great extent. August Strindberg has focused on the main theme-female degradation which was a matter of discussion in the late 18th century. Cont..Jean exhibited false Modesty not only to his mistress but also to his fiance Christine, giving her false promises of a bright future life and flirting with the Mistress just for exploiting her to the maximum.Symbolism The horsewhip: Miss Julie makes her fianc jump over a horsewhip. This action symbolizes hers desire to dominate men, whom her mother brought her up to despise.Wine: Jean drinks wine, a claret. It symbolizes the upper classes, to which he aspires.Beer and wine: Miss Julie drinks beer, a lower-class drink, and wine, an upper-class drink, symbolizing her confusion about her self-identity. Her mother came from the lower class and her father, the count, from the upper class.The handkerchief: .Christine smells the handkerchief left behind by Miss Julie, then folds it, actions symbolizing her curiosity about the upper classes (the smelling) and her acceptance of her status as menial (the folding).ContThe hawk: Because it soars above the earth looking for prey, the hawk symbolizes the status of the upper class and its exploitation of the lower class.The caged finch: it symbolizes Miss Julie, who is a prisoner of her heredity and environment. Jeans killing of the finch with an axe foreshadows Miss Julies killing of herself with Jeans razor.Boots and the bell: The counts boots and bell are symbols of the authority of the count, to whom both Miss Julie and Jean must answer.There are also some other symbols: (the razor, Dog and Finch)Miss Julie is a tragedyMiss Julieis a tragedy because Miss Julie suffers a downfall (suicide). However, it is not a tragedy in the traditional sense. Heres why. In a classical Greek play, such as SophoclesOedipus Rex, a character falls to ruin in part because of an error or lapse in moral judgment. But in Strindbergs play, Miss Julies 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.

References Cummings, J, Michael. study guide, 2010.Strindberg, A. (1888) Preface to Miss Julie, in Meyer, M. [trans.] (2000) Strindberg, Plays: One, London: Methuen Drama, pp. 91-103.Strindberg, August. Miss Julie. San Francisco: Chandler Pub., 1961Sreekumar, Praseedha. Social Norms and Feminine Sensibility - A Study of August Strindbergs Miss Julie. Language in India, 12 : 4 April 2012. www.languageinindia.comZola, E. (1881) Naturalism on the Stage, in Cole, T. [ed.] (2001) Playwrights on Playwriting: from Ibsen to Ionesco, New York: Cooper Square Press, pp. 5-14.