Miss Julie

Miss Julie

In the preface of drama, August Strindberg describes his heroine Miss Julie .Miss Julie is 25 years girls of belonging to upper class family, she is a daughter of a noble man the count. She is always expected to follow the courtesy of Aristocratic family but she separates herself from Aristocratic way of life. It seems that she is in search of her own identity. Avoiding so called social regards; she falls in love with her father’s servant. She does not care power, prestige and social expectation on her. She happens to compromise everything for the sake of her private will. In this sense we can call her rebellious and bold enough. Miss Julie is presented as a hater of men. She seems immature and imperfect in her way of living but she is somehow aware about her position and her father’s social prestige. But guided by infatuation and passion she happens to forget her heritage. She feels free to have relation with the Valet who is from different social background. At this point she happens to forget her man hating nature and family tradition.

We can call her a modern character as well. She was nurtured and trained to manipulate man by her late mother. She is taught to think and act like man. She never fears any man. But tries her best to enslave them. She does not hesitate to control her fiancé, training him like a dog. She does not have any sort of lamentation when he breaks the marriage engagement. Julie does not understand her place in society as an aristocrat or as a woman. She is confused and she often speaks feminist voice. But her stand is shaky. Moreover she is a modern character who can challenge established beliefs and way of life. Julie is strong willed, confused and a rebellious character as well. She reveals a confuse gender identity. Inspite of hating men, she easily yields before Jeans but at the same time she is aware about her own self. The writer describes Julie as degenerated women as she degrades her position, she wants to fall down. She seems uninterested on her father’s social legacy. Breaking down all the social regards she becomes the victim of uncontrolled passion. Moreover we can conclude Julie as a mysterious character, as a strong will lady. She does what she likes but she always fears presents of her father. She hates man but she falls in love with Jean. She try to dismiss the social class but in the same time she becomes class conscious. She is hunted by her family legacy often. She becomes the victim of environment and heredity as well. If she had not got rebellious mother she could not have become man hater. So we can conclude that she is a mysterious and confused character.

The play Miss Julie is rich in its symbols. Many things presented by the play writes have more or less symbolic significant and they add meaning in totality. Mid-summer eve is a major symbol in the play. The setting of the play refers to mid-summer eve in the kitchen of the count. On this festival a pagan dance is performed. Mid-summer eve is a festival of a pagan origins celebrated in northern Europe. The paganism of the festival is symbolically related to the lust of protagonist that is Miss Julie and Jean. The pagan festival is a break from regular life, crossing of social boundaries and rebellion against model structure. Here, Miss Julie encounters with Jean in the Mid-summer eve. She crosses the social boundaries at the very eve. Julie’s rebellious act Jean breach social boundaries are justifiable in the eve of midsummer.

In the play both animals Diana and Serena have symbolic meaning, Diana stands for Julie’s plight. Like Diana Julie is controlled by a low class man and she is made submissive like Diana. Serena is Julie’s bird. She is killed by Jean and her killing symbolizes Jean’s emotional and moral killing of Miss Julie. The life of bird is analogous to life of Miss Julie because she is controlled by many restrictions. The dreams of JEAN AND Julie have symbolic significance. Jean’s dream symbolizes social up grading while Julie’s dream suggest social and moral degrading. Jean desires to climb up to achieve high social status like that of count while Julie wishes to degrade her due to her confused gender identity and dilemma about her social status. Apart from these major symbols there are other minor symbols as well. They are the ringing bells, the boats, Jeans liberty etc. this object symbolically suggest the authority of the count in the absence of him, power is still working in the mind of Jean, Julie and Kristine. Count’s boats are placed in a corner of a room and those boats remind the cook and the valet remembers the responsibility in the house. Similarly Jean’s wears liberty given by his master. He wears it even in his absence. In the play ringing bell gives trouble to Miss Julie because she fears her father. The horse-whip which Miss Julie makes her fiancé jump over, symbolizes her desire to dominant man. The wine which Jean drinks symbolizes the upper class to which Jean aspires. The handkerchief left behind by Miss Julie symbolizes the status of upper class and its exploitation of the lower class. The eagle bird symbolizes the condition of Miss Julie who is a prisoner of heredity and environment. The razor with which Jean’s shaves and with which Miss Julie kills herself symbolizes the male instrument for the collapsed of female. Finally all these symbols employed by the writer give meaning in totality.

Miss Julie seems challenging both society and life style. She deliberately breaks down all the social restrictions so that she could exercise her free will. Julie does not value society and its expectation on her. She never hesitates to have relation with Jean. She makes a plan to run away with Jean. All these actions indicate that she considers herself equal to the servant. Moreover she is often guided by her confusion regarding social feminial and moral status. She compels Jean to kiss on her leg. She shows love towards Jean but she slapped him as well when he tries to kiss her on her face. It seems that Julie uses Jean to break down her social restriction. By sleeping with Jean Julie degrades her status so that she could fall from the top of social ranking. Lastly, we can claim that Julie is a degenerated women presented by the play writes because she is not confined to her social, economic and moral rank.

Reference-

Klaus, C. H. (2013). New York: Oxford University Press.