Genre: Naturalist Tragedy
First Performed: 1888
Written: 1888
Themes: Idealisation, Class, Degradation.
Setting: Sweden
Miss Julie (Swedish: Fröken Julie) is a naturalistic play written in 1888 byAugust Strindberg. It is set on Midsummer's Eve on the estate of a Count inSweden. The young woman of the title is drawn to a senior servant, a valetnamed Jean, who is particularly well-traveled, well-mannered and well-read. The action takes place in the kitchen of Miss Julie's father's manor, where Jean's fiancée, a servant named Christine, cooks and sometimes sleeps while Jean and Miss Julie talk.
On this night the relationship between Miss Julie and Jean escalates rapidly to feelings of love and is subsequently consummated. Over the course of the play Miss Julie and Jean battle until Jean convinces her that the only way to escape her predicament is to commit suicide.
Miss Julie: Strong-willed daughter of the count who owns the estate. Raised by her late mother to "think like and act like a man", she is a confused individual. She is aware of the power she holds, but switches between being above the servants and flirting with Jean. She longs to fall from her pillar, an expression symbolically put across as a recurring dream she has.
Jean: Manservant to the Count. He tells a story of seeing Miss Julie many times as a child and loving her even then, but the truth of the story is later denied. There is good evidence both for and against its veracity. He left the town and traveled widely, working many different jobs as he went, before finally returning to work for the count. He has aspirations to rise from his station in life and manage his own hotel, and Miss Julie is part of his plan. He is alternately kind and callous. Despite his aspirations, he is rendered servile by the mere sight of the count's gloves and boots.
Christine (or Kristine): The cook in the Count's household. She is devoutly religious and apparently betrothed to Jean, although they refer to this marriage almost jokingly.
The Count: Miss Julie's father. He is never seen, but his gloves and his boots are on stage, serving as a reminder of his power. When the bell sounds, his presence is also noted more strongly.
The play opens with Jean walking onto the stage, the set being the kitchen of the manor. He drops the count's boots off to the side but still within view of the audience; his clothing shows that he is a valet. The playwright describes the set in detail in naturalistic style. Jean talks to Christine about Miss Julie's peculiar behavior. He considers her mad since she went to the barn dance, danced with the gamekeeper, and tried to waltz with Jean, a mere servant of the count. Christine delves into the background of Miss Julie, stating how, unable to face her family after the humiliation of breaking her engagement, she stayed behind to mingle with the servants at the dance instead of going with her father to the Midsummer's Eve celebrations. Miss Julie got rid of her fiancé seemingly because he refused her demand that he jump over a riding whip she was holding. The incident, apparently witnessed by Jean, was similar to training a dog to jump through a hoop.
Jean takes out a bottle of fine wine, a wine with a "yellow seal," and reveals, by the way he flirts with her, that he and Christine are engaged. Noticing a stench, Jean asks what Christine is cooking so late on Midsummer's Eve. The pungent mixture turns out to be an abortifacient for Miss Julie's dog, which was impregnated by the gatekeeper's mongrel. Jean calls Miss Julie "too stuck-up in some ways and not proud enough in others," traits apparently inherited from her mother. Despite her character flaws, Jean finds Miss Julie beautiful or perhaps simply a stepping stone to achieve his lifelong goal of owning an inn. When Miss Julie enters and asks Christine if the "meal" has finished cooking, Jean instantly shapes up, becoming charming and polite. Jokingly, he asks if the women are gossiping about secrets or making a witch's broth for seeing Miss Julie's future suitor. After more niceties, Miss Julie invites Jean once more to dance the waltz, at which point he hesitates, pointing out that he already promised Christine a dance and that the gossip generated by such an act would be savage. Almost offended by this response, she justifies her request by pulling rank: she is the lady of the house and must have the best dancer as her partner. Then, insisting that rank does not matter, she convinces Jean to waltz with her. When they return, Miss Julie recounts a dream of climbing up a pillar and being unable to get down. Jean responds with a story of creeping into her walled garden as a child—he sees it as "the Garden of Eden, guarded by angry angels with flaming swords"—and gazing at her longingly from under a pile of stinking weeds. He says he was so distraught with this unrequitable love that he tried to die beautifully and pleasantly by sleeping in a bin of oats.
At this point Jean and Miss Julie notice some servants heading up to the house, singing a song that mocks the pair of them. They hide in Jean's room. Although Jean swears he won't take advantage of her there, when they emerge later it becomes apparent that the two have had sex. Now they are forced to figure out how to deal with it, as Jean theorizes that they can no longer live together anymore — he feels they will be tempted to continue their relationship until they are caught. Now he confesses that he was only pretending when he said he had tried to commit suicide for love of her. Furiously, Miss Julie tells him of how her mother raised her to be submissive to no man. They then decide to run away together to start a hotel, with Jean running it and Miss Julie providing the capital. Miss Julie agrees and steals some of her father's money, but angers Jean when she insists on bringing her little bird along—she insists that it is the only creature that loves her, after her dog Diana was "unfaithful" to her. When Miss Julie insists that she would rather kill the bird than see it in the hands of strangers, Jean cuts off its head. In the midst of this confusion, Christine comes downstairs, prepared to go to church. She is shocked by Jean and Miss Julie's planning and unmoved when Miss Julie asks her to come along with them as head of the kitchen of the hotel. Christine explains to Miss Julie about God and forgiveness and heads off for church, telling them as she leaves that she will tell the stablemasters not to let them take out any horses so that they cannot run off. Shortly after, they receive word that Miss Julie's father, the Count, has returned. At this, both lose courage and find themselves unable to go through with their plans. Miss Julie realizes that she has nothing to her name, as her thoughts and emotions were taught to her by her mother and her father. She asks Jean if he knows of any way out for her. He takes a shaving razor and hands it to her and the play ends as she walks through the door with it, presumably to commit suicide.
What is Diana's problem?
She has slept with a mongrel
What sermon is being given on Midsummer's day?
The story of Saint John the Baptist
Where would Jean like to open a hotel?
Lake Como
What does the hypnotist tell his subject in Miss Julie's explanation of hypnotism?
To sweep the stage
What did Jean catch Miss Julie doing to her fiancé?
Beating him with a crop
Who conspired to burn down the estate?
The Countess and her lover
In his ostensible attempt at suicide, Jean lies down in a bed of what?
Alder leaves
Why has Miss Julie stayed home on Midsummer Eve?
She cannot face her family in the wake of her broken engagement
Who else has attempted suicide in the play?
The Count
Who does Christine ask Jean to play in the final scene?
The Count before his valet
What does Miss Julie have Jean remove early on in their seduction?
His livery
Why did the estate fall into ruin under the Countess's direction?
Because she reversed sex roles
What adorns the fountain visible through the glass doors?
A statue of Cupid
What does Christine not do in the first pantomime?
Dance
If Julie confesses to her father, she imagines that he will do what?
Die
At the very beginning of the play, Jean describes Miss Julie as what?
Wild
What "immediately" leads Miss Julie to flee with Jean to his room?
The approaching crowd
Jean's childhood memory of Julie places her in what setting?
On the rose terrace
Late in the play, Julie delivers a tirade on annihilating Jean's "entire sex." What precipitates this speech?
The decapitation of Serena
What does Jean see move of its own accord at the end of the play?
The bell
Who wrote a story that might have provided the point of departure for Miss Julie?
Zola
What is Christine cooking at the beginning of the play?
A remedy for Diana
What is Jean's job?
Valet
What is Christine carrying in her last entrance?
A hymn book
From whom has Miss Julie learned to hate women?
The Count
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