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

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   - 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