Miss Julie

Guide Note:

August Strindberg's Miss Julie begins with the valet Jean bragging to the cook Christine that he danced with the Count's daughter Miss Julie. Despite Jean's warning that people will gossip about them dancing together she invites him to a party. This disapproval was mirrored in the reaction of many audiences who considered a relationship based on lust rather than love and one between an upper class woman and lower class man to be scandalous.

Miss Julie asks Jean if he has ever been in love and he lies and says he was in love with her when he was younger to the point he attempted suicide. Miss Julie asks him to take her to the lake, but they are interrupted by guests and go to his room. After they return to the kitchen Jean says it is impossible to stay at the manor because of the gossip.

Jean and Miss Julie plan to flee, but Christine reminds Jean that he said he would go to church with her. Afterwards the Count returns and Miss Julie begs Jean to leave with her. Christine who is dedicated to the social hierarchy and is angry at Jean and Miss Julie for upsetting it then says she will have the stable boy prevent them from leaving. Miss Julie asks Jean to place her in a "hypnoid state" which was associated with female hysterics and lead her to her death.

Fast Facts:

1. First performed in 1888
2. Written by August Strindberg
3. Set on a summer night in 1894
4. Originally written in Swedish
5. Swedish title is Froken Julie
6. Alternate title is Countess Julie
7. Major theme is different forms of power
8. Frank McGuinness wrote a modern version set in Ireland
9. Set in the Count Manor's House in Sweden
10. Tragic play
11. Focuses on conflict based on gender and class

Important Quotations

1. You're making me a coward I thought I saw the bell move Afraid of a bell! But it isn't just a bell. There's somebody behind it. A hand that makes it move. And there's something that makes the hand move.—Stop your ears, that's it, stop your ears! But it only rings louder.
2. Maybe at bottom there isn't such a great difference between people as we think.