Miss Julie Tunes

I'm On Fire

Confident

Body Heat

Dangerous Woman

Rumors

Footman Finery

Let's take a closer look at some period details...

1890s



Around 1892




From https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/footmen/

Footmen tended to be young, tall, and good-looking.

Footmen, whose livery cost more than their yearly salary, were status symbols. Chosen for their height and looks, they were the only servants allowed to assist the butler at dinner table. These men were the only servants allowed upstairs.



This is a typical Victorian-era collar - tall and stiff. The smaller corner-folded tuxedo collar would not come into fashion for house staff until the following century.

*** Collection of modern re-creations of Victorian menswear


Available here

DIY  (Not the greatest instructions, but it has possibility)

Further discussion and options




To buy - Amazon Dry Goods

*** Ooh! Easy alteration of a regular dress shirt!

NOT BAD.

Sounds of Silence

Nouela - End Scene

Disturbed

Napkin Ettiquette

While using napkins in connection with eating a meal has been around for over 600 years, it wasn't until the mid-1700's that napkins were placed across the lap. Prior to that time, the fashion in the French court was for men to wear stiff ruffled collars, and napkins were tied around the neck to protect the lace. (This also makes a lot of sense when you consider the lace falls men would wear, as modeled by His Majesty, King Louis Roman Numeral Something or Other.) His Emperial Ettiquetteness was the first to use formal, individual place settings with designated utensils at Versailles, and napkins went from small-blanket-sized to the now standard 30"x36". They were folded and placed across diners' laps in rank order, most-important person to least. As with most fashionable activities, aristocratic classes in European countries followed the French.

It is likely, however, that for the lower classes napkins would still be regularly tied around the neck, even for the following 100+ years. For Jean, he might tie the napkin around his neck to protect his uniform, or he might put it across his lap as a learned, deliberate mannerism. Miss Julie is more likely to automatically put a napkin on her lap without conscious thought.

Source: http://whatscookingamerica.net/EllenEaston/Napkins-History.htm

Fashionistas

The Victorian Era lasted from 1837-1901, and the influence of the British Empire stretched throughout aspects of Western culture - including fashion. Countries in Europe maintained elements of traditional dress, but generally exchanged styles and designs (particularly in the upper classes) across the continent.

From a Tumblr account:

Crown Prince Gustaf and Princess Victoria of Sweden, with Princess Charlotte of Saxe Meiningen and Prussia. 1880's.

For women, the silhouette was characterized by closely-fitted 'princess' seams for a curvy shape, corseted tightly at the waist and incorporating full skirts with a bustle. Suits for men became slightly more casual or boxy in shape, with a matching waistcoat (vest) rather than the more formal contrasting frock coat (fitted), waistcoat, and trousers. Cutaway tails were still used for formal morning dress and evening wear. Both sexes began to explore the idea of 'sportswear', somewhat looser fashions that allowed for greater range of motion during outdoor activities.

**Excellent descriptions, and fantastic pictures of women's wear in the 1880's  (seriously, really good)
Wikipedia page (some good visuals and descriptions)
Moving into the 1900's

* * * * *
Servants

Footman

Junior Footman

House servants in Sweden

Maid

Kitchen scene in a farmhouse

Chambermaid

Chambermaid, too

* * * * *
Illustrations from ladies' fashion magazines and pattern books for evening wear

The Hysterical History of Female Hysteria

Oh, Hippocrates. (The man, some might surmise, who inspired the Britney Spears hit, '(You Drive Me) Crazy'. I would definitely think so.) You and your 'wandering wombs' theory. I was going to do a write-up on the topic, but it really doesn't get much better than this article, so - enjoy.

Traditionally (and by 'traditionally' I mean 'pretty much always'), men (and by 'men' I mean 'those in positions of authority throughout history') have had issues with the differences between themselves and women (and by 'women' I mean 'women'). For one thing, females are missing the most important body part (the penis) and have a strange, mysterious, non-visible body part that men don't (the womb) which in turn magically produces small humans. Back in ancient Greece, Hippocrates, one of the first major physicians, theorized that the addition of this body part, capable as it was of producing life, was essentially a living being itself and therefore capable of moving around inside a woman's body and therefore capable of creating all sorts of imbalances, flights of fancy, headaches, drowsiness, and lots of other conditions including rather nasty smells known as 'vapors'. (He conveniently ignored the fact that men also experience all of these symptoms, up to and including nasty smells - perhaps he thought the penis acted as a sort of regulator since it only moved noticeably outside the body, and not invisibly inside.) ((I just realized that much more frequently people now refer to a man's genitalia as having 'a mind of its own' and that we all generally acknowledge that women's innards have pretty much settled down.)) (((Annnd I ALSO just realized I did the write-up on 'wandering wombs' anyway. Oops.)))

'Hysteria' - also known as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anxiety attacks.

By the Victorian era, 'hysteria' was a recognized catch-all of women's health issues. It took a surprisingly long time for people to figure out that when a woman of the time had 'a touch of the vapors' her dizzy spell was caused by her overly-tight corset restricting airflow, not unhealthy gasses emanating from her ladyparts. Over the centuries doctors (all male, ahem) had lumped sexual urges in with pretty much all other conditions a woman might be suffering from, including depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, PTSD, emotional outbursts, laughing vigorously, learning a second language, and reading novels. And also, sex. By the 1800's physicians were staying in business by treating women for 'hysteria' by inducing orgasms, or 'hysterical paroxysm'. Vibrators were introduced as a medical tool for just that purpose. Sigmund Freud, in Austria in the 1880's and 1890's, was the first to suggest that 'women's issues' were not, in fact, tied to the womb, but to the brain. His theories and practice of psychoanalysis were the starting point for determining mental health conditions unconnected to the uterus. However, it wasn't until the 1950's that the medical profession finally dropped the term 'hysteria'.

It was just too convenient, I expect.

* * *

Interesting, informative video. I bet she'd be a kick at parties.

http://bigthink.com/videos/what-was-female-hysteria-really

* * *

Also during the late 1800's, many asylums were established solely to treat female 'hysteria'. It was an accepted philosophy that curing the body would cure the mind, and by 'cure' I mean 'removal of the afflicted organ would restore sanity' - with the understanding that 'afflicted organ' meant 'female reproductive parts'. This article describes the attitude and perceptions of hysteria and the removal of patients to asylums in the Victorian era. Since women were not allowed at that time to study medicine, there wasn't much they could do other than wonder, 'Are you sure? That really doesn't seem right. I'm not a doctor, but it is my body, so...'

It took another 50+ years before the medical field started listening, and in some parts of the world even today those advances still haven't actually happened.

Get crazy, ladies.

Why a Razor?

Seppuku

Also known as hara-kiri ('hari kiri'), this traditional practice is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was used either voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely suffer torture) or as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a tantō, into the abdomen and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the abdomen open.

A tantō. Could have been used for shaving. Maybe.

The first recorded act of seppuku was performed by Minamoto no Yorimasa during the Battle of Uji in the year 1180. Seppuku eventually became a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame and avoid possible torture. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to carry out seppuku. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to carry out seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. The most common form of seppuku for men was composed of the cutting of the abdomen, and when the samurai was finished, he stretched out his neck for an assistant to sever his spinal cord by cutting halfway into the neck. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, the condemned should not be decapitated completely but only halfway. Those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to carry out seppuku. Samurai generally could carry out the act only with permission.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku

During the Victorian era Europeans were fascinated with stories of travel and exotic rituals. It is highly probable that Strindberg (as well as his audience) was familiar with this Oriental practice. 

NIN

'Closer'

'Beautiful People'

August and Julie

August Strindberg - 1849-1912

The author of 60 plays, 12+ novels, 100+ short stories, as well as various other writings, Strindberg is considered the ‘father of Swedish literature’. Strindberg had a complicated personality and mindset, and he once noted that his was a childhood affected by ‘emotional insecurity, poverty, religious fanaticism and neglect’. Over his life he suffered from persistent paranoia, three broken marriages, and a major nervous breakdown – all in the midst of extraordinary creative output.  

Strindberg’s plays are generally divided into two periods: his ‘Naturalistic’ or (‘slice of life’) plays, from 1872 - 1894 (including Miss Julie in 1888) and ‘Expressionist’ plays from 1897 on. The transitional three years between were a time of intense interest in and focus on the occult, and are more than likely to have influenced his exploration of dream/nightmare elements, symbolic actions and a subjective interpretation of the world in his later works. However, Strindberg was always interested in a more impressionistic interpretation of Naturalism, and his earlier plays were less photographic in their realism when compared to other authors of the time (particularly Emile Zola).

‘He saw characters operating out of “a whole series of deeply buried motives.” His characters were not necessarily the product of their genes or their social circumstances… Yet he saw clearly that class distinctions helped determine the behavior of many people. Strindberg seemed to accept the view that people were not created by their class but rather belonged to their class because of the kind of people they were. Strindberg probed deeply into the psychology of his characters, whose emotional lives, rather than outward social qualities, determined their actions.’

                                                                                                                Bedford, p.654

In regards to women, August Strindberg was apparently as complex and contradictory in his attitudes as in most other aspects of his life. He was described as a misogynist, but married a successful actress who performed much of his work including the title character in Miss Julie. He indicated that he saw women as representing both the best and the most ‘evil’ the world had to offer, a perspective that could potentially be represented by Miss Julie’s contempt for herself as a woman along with her contempt for men. In his preface to the play, Strindberg described Miss Julie as a ‘modern character’, a ‘half-woman’ who sells herself for power, honors, and recognition rather than money. He calls her ‘tragic’ because her modernity struggles against Nature; he believed that romantic natures seek for happiness, but cannot achieve it because it belongs only to the strong and skillful (Nature = survival of the fittest). He calls her a victim of: ‘her own flawed constitution’, the family problems caused by ‘a mother’s “crime”’, and ‘the delusions and conditions of her age’ (it is unclear if ‘age’ refers to actual number of years, or to the era/manners/social expectations in which she lives. Possibly both.)

There is a dreamlike quality that creeps into the play (evoking A Midsummer Night’s Dream, perhaps), a psychological approach that marks the work as an early representation of his later expressionistic style. Themes include a focus on opposites, directions, movement: ‘social climbing or falling, of higher or lower, better or worse, man or woman’. In regards to social climbing vs. aristocratic status, Strindberg wrote that the dilemma of the ‘slave’ is his vacillating ‘sympathy for people in high social positions and hatred for those who currently occupy those positions.’ Jean’s only polish is surface, his common nature is indicated by his unconcern with the notion of ‘honor’, and the play suggests, by referencing Jean’s plans for his future children, that social climbing is genetic. This contrasts sharply with the notion of inherent nobility, and the behaviors that this inbred trait brings out in its descendants. The playwright also says  Jean is superior to Miss Julie because he is a man; that he is a sexual aristocrat because of his ‘masculine strength, his more keenly developed senses, and his capacity for taking the initiative.’ (From a modern perspective, these assertions are definitely points for debate.)

Miss Julie, Stockholm, 1906

* * *

   - Is Death directional (a moving on, letting go?), or does Julie die in order to redeem her honor and cement an aristocratic presence/memory (i.e., retard all movement)?

   - Is Jean inherently a social climber or a misplaced aristocrat, as determined by his nature, education, and behavior?

   - Based on the play, what are Strindberg’s perceptions of women? Are they true to the period, less extreme, or more? How does this match up with perceptions of women today?

   - What do you think about the play’s almost religious perception of ‘social circumstance’ (Miss Julie – devotee, Jean – agnostic, Kristine – blind follower?)? Is there a modern-day equivalent?

Source: The Bedford Introduction to Drama – pp. 653-6, 673- 676