Poetry and Drama Since 1800 - Miss Julie PDF

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This document will help you focus on the issues of gender within August Strindberg's play Miss Julie. Looking closely at quotes, context and the idea of hysteria as presented through Miss Julie herself as a lead role in the play....

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Literature in Context: Poetry and Drama Since 1800 Miss Julie – August Strindberg

Gender in Miss Julie

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‘Strindberg pulls his women down from pedestals and subjects his female characters to the same ruthless and sceptical observation, which had, of course, long been accepted in the creation of male characters.’ (Miss Julie Preface)

In Miss Julie, there is a confusing conflict between the two main characters, Jean and Julie. Jean, being a male lead in the play, manipulates Julie emotionally and psychologically throughout as he uses his own emotions to get Miss Julie to open up to him. He then further uses this tactic to make her feel disgusted about herself. Gender Quotes -

‘You’d be jolly pleased to get a gentleman like me.’ (p.4)

Jean believes he is someone that any woman would be lucky to have, although he can be recognised as a manipulator when it comes to both Miss Julie, and his wife. -

‘You aren’t a child, and when people see a lady drinking alone with a man – let alone a servant – on Midsummers Eve – then’ (p.10)

This highlights the gender norms in society around the time in which the play was published and first performed. Women are expected to be passive and stay within the home, tending to their homely duties. -

‘You see, my mother was […] brought up with ideas about equality, freedom for women and all that.’ (p.27) ‘I was to learn everything that a boy has to learn, so I might stand as an example of how a woman can be as good as a man.’ (p.28)

This gives the audience an insight into the life of Miss Julie, as well as her upbringing by the hands of her mother. She feels as though her mother was bad at raising her as she feels abandoned by her; ‘I came into the world against my mother’s wish as far as I can gather.’ (p.28) -

‘I’d learn from her to distrust and hate men – she hated men and I swore to her that I would never be a slave to any man.’ (p.29)

Although she feels unwanted by her mother, she still values the promise she made when it comes to becoming a woman of value and independence. -

‘I’d like to see all your sex swimming in a lake of blood.’ (p.38)

An emphasis on the hatred Miss Julie feels towards men is brought out in her by Jean.

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‘… I can’t feel anything, I can’t repent, can’t run away, can’t stay, can’t live – can’t die! Help me! Order men, and I’ll obey you like a dog.’ (p.45)

This contradicts the promise that Julie mentions beforehand that she made to her mother about not falling to the hands of man. Here she begs Jean to treat her like a ‘dog’ and command her as she is unable to decide what it is that she needs, or wants, to do. Context Social Context -

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Until the mid-nineteenth century, Swedish society had been ruled by it’s King and a government bureaucracy who consulted, with representation of the 4 estates: o Nobility o Clergy o City Elders o Farmers From the 1830’s, there were growing calls for a new political order which would replace the meetings of the 4 estates with a proper parliament consisting of two chambers: o The 1st unelected chamber to include a large number of aristocrats. o The 2nd chamber elected and to include many of those who had served in the stanoriksdagen (particularly the farmers). Sweden had never had a feudal peasantry: its farmers had therefore always enjoyed an independent status.

Strindberg’s Context -

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August Strindberg was born in 1849, to an unhappy family of 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. o His mother was a former servant, his father a shipping merchant. Strindberg was an infamous misogynist. o He intended to portray Miss Julie as a monster. o One can trace the genealogy of his hatred for women in some of his early works such as Getting Married (1884), which had earned him a charge of blasphemy. o Strindberg’s misogyny was central to many psychotic episodes he suffered from throughout the 1890’s. These episodes would put a stop to his dramatic production altogether.

Themes The Degenerate Woman -

In his preface, Strindberg describes his heroine, Miss Julie, as a woman with a ‘weak and degenerate brain.’

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Miss Julie is one of the first major exercises in Naturalism and of the naturalist character becomes a case study of a woman who is supposedly, as Jean states, “sick.” The two concepts of psychology which exist within Strindberg’s day: o Hysteria o Feminine Masochism Hysteria

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Historically considered a female disease + in 19 th century society was defined as an illness brought on when a woman failed or refused to accept her sexual needs, and did not become a sexual object. o Strindberg most likely meant for the audience to see Miss Julie as hysteric, for she is simultaneously disgusted, as well as drawn, to men (both non-sexual and seductive) o Miss Julie inherits her mother’s hatred of men, attempting to train her fiancé with a riding whip and fantasizing about the annihilation of the male sex....