Miss Julie Paper 2

1st Quote

"Between us there can be no barriers hereafter" --> Julie insists J calls her by Julie Jean responds " There will be barriers between us as long a we stay in this house" (presence of Count's estate forces)

15th Quote

"But he was the one who reared me in contempt for my own sex - half woman and half man! Whose fault is it, this that has happened? My father's my mother's my own? My own? Why, I have nothing that is my own?" - MJ

10th Quote

"Command me and I'll obey you like a dog! Do me this last favor - save my honor" - MJ

16th Quote

"Command me, and I'll obey you like a dog! Do me this last favor - save my honor, and save me! You know what my will ought to do, and what it cannot do-now give me your will, and make me do it! - MJ can't make the final jump of her escape alone

2nd Quote

"Do you know how the world looks from below? No you don't. No more than do hawks and falcons, of whom we never see the back because they are always floating above, high up in the sky" - Jean (basically she is unable to achieve equality w him bc she doesn't know anything about him) While she wants to drink w her servants she is not interest in the true nature of their misery

12th Quote

"Don't take it as a command. Tonight we should enjoy ourselves as a lot of happy people, and all rank should be forgotten"

13th Quote

"Don't you see: I could have made a countess of you, but you could never make me a count" - J (if he had agreed to marry her, but she has no social pwoer to choose her own spouse or pass on her title) but he is disgusted by his behaviour

4th Quote

"I cannot command you - and now, since I've heard the Count's voice - I can't quite explain it - I believe if the count should come down here and if he should tell me to cut my own throat - I'd do it on the spot!"

10th Quote

"I have a dream that comes back to me ever so often... I have climbed to the top of a column and sit there without being able to tell how to get down again, I get dizzy when look down, and I must get down, but I haven't the courage to jump off" (foreshadows her plight at end of play) (slick sides means she doesn't have another way to get down other than jumping (death) - MJ sees herself climbing without nay sense of where she is going or how to get down (she seduces Jean's without any mind towards the consciousness of her actions)

3rd Quote

"If I only catch sight of his gloves on the chair I feel small, it's as if something made my back bend" -Jean

6th Quote

"It is dangerous to play with fire" - Jean "Not for me. I'm insured" - MJ (after flirting, insurance is her social class (she thinks it protects her but it actually leads to her death) so

7th Quote

"Menial and Lackey" (Julie for speaking improperly towards her) "You lackey love, you mistress of a menial - shut up and get out of here!" - Jean (repeats words means Julie has placed herself on his level and has given up the right to dictate Jean's actions.

14th Quote

"My mother wanted to bring me up in a perfectly natural state, and at the same time I was to learn everything that a boy is taught, so that I might prove that a woman is just as good as a man" - MJ (contempt of her own sex)

5th Quote

"My tastes are so simple I prefer it to wine"

9th Quote

"Now you must also kiss my shoe in order to get it just right"

THE BIG QUOTE

"You think I cannot stand the sight of blood. You think I am as weak as that - oh, I should like to see your blood, your brains, on that block there. I should like to see your whole sex swimming in blood like that thing there. I could drink out of your skull and bathe my feet in your open breast" monologue language of witchcraft and slaughter

11th Quote

"the trunk is so thick and smooth and it is so far to the first branch. But I know that if I could only reach that first branch, then I should go right on to the top as on a ladder" - J

CONFINEMENT AND ESCAPE

- 2 come together out of desire to escape their current circumstances and neither can truly be free of boundaries of their social classes and strict structure of their society - escape seen as climbing and falling - J, escape to manage his hotel in Romania --> ascent out of poverty - MJ hide from pressures of her title, which require her to marry and start a family to continue her bloodline --> descent the social ladder (indulging (enjoying)) ins promiscuity - MJ is able to escape judgement through suicide, tainted by promiscuity - J is unable to assert his dominance ay longer once Count returns

Climax

Jean orders Miss Julie to slit her own throat (she does)

Symbols

- Death of J: natural outcome of her unnatural upbringing (her upbringing and degenerate brain led her to be unable to fulfill marriage and motherhood and so she had sex - J's masculine strength is undermined by his social class

CLASS

- sleeps with servant (aristocratic) - aristocrat have the nobility to sacrifice everything to preserve their reputation (even if it meant losing their life) - MJ is a victim of the inflexible idea of upper-class honor - J makes it clear to MJ that he thinks ancestry to be a a trap that is imprisoning her - J constructs a pedigree for himself out of acquire characteristics: superior taste in food and wine and knowledge of french, but he lacks inherited class - J constantly reminds her of the barriers between them

Foreshadowing

- story foreshadows MJ death after placing her trust in a low-born lover who swindles her

DIANA

- Christine is cooking something for MJ's dog Diana who is in trouble after ruining round with gatekeeper's pug. This parallels MJ's fate (dog should be shot)

Metaphor

- Julie explains she had a dream where she climbed to top of a slick column and couldn't get down (being close to Jean is allowing her to climb down) - Jean's dream is to climb a tree but needs to hold first branch (which is so far) (it'd be an easy climb to the top only if he could reach the first branch, and that's J)

Plot

- Kitchen of Count's house on Midsummer's Eve - Christine is cooking and cleaning - Jean tells Christine MJ is behaving wildly - MJ has chosen to stay behind to celebrate with servants (asking to dance with her) - MJ flirts with Jean a lot (Jean is like no I don't wanna dance with you again bc servants 'll gossip) - Jean wants to dance with Christine (MJ jealous) - MJ asks J if he's been in love and J says yes, with MJ when he was a child - worked in garden he saw her, saw Julie (while he flee through excrement in bottom of house) and was amazed by her beauty - MJ and J hear noises so fearing they'll be caught and discovered together, go to Jean's bedroom - J promises to protect Julie - they hav sex (claims people know so they should escape) bc J seduces her and shames her this jeopardizes Julies reputation - J can start his hotel and Julie a mistress of house (but they need money and MJ doesn't have money, so J is like then nah we can stay her)

BIOLOGY VS. SOCIETY

- Naturalistic bc MJ and J are 2 characters whose innate natures are betrayed by the way they have each been brought up (both reference their upbringings a lot and constrains of society as reasons they can't achieve their dreams) - J can't make best of his intellect strength and ingenuity bc he grew up poor - J is the victor of the play and "escapes of servitude"

Play

- Naturalistic drama (realistic with characters that were complex and flawed) - play about 2 people struggling to attain and maintain dominance over one another - Julie uses nobility and sexuality to dominate Jean - Jean dominates Julie by her masculinity ("Sexually he is the aristocrat because of his male strength, his more finely developed senses and his capacity for taking the initiative" - portray's dark side of European aristocracy- women like MJ feel constrained by the boundaries of their gender and social position - Strindberg believes the most adaptable and intelligent commoners (Jean) will rise up to replace the aristocracy, while the nobility (Julie) will die as a result of the inflexible concepts of honor and reputation

DOMINANCE VS SUBMISSION

- Once Julie and Jean have sex, Julie begins to exhibit conventional womanly characteristics "Tell me that you love me. Come take me in your arms" - MJ - change in behavior suggests MJ has been tamed and feminized by Jean - as she becomes more feminine, Jean becomes more harsh and masculine and controlling - her actions become hysterical, dictated by emotions rather than reason - she continues to make reference to her own weakness - Strindberg indicates that Julie's concept of her own dominance is false, bolstered by her social position and weak degenerate brain while Jean's dominance is ensured by his gender (in sex, MJ stripped of her sexual autonomy and social dominance)

Sex Scene

- Power dynamic shift as Jean shames her for promiscuity - Julie loses dominance and begins to exhibit more submissive characteristics - MJ is restored to a state of natural female submissiveness and Jean wins dominance - lover vie for dominance over one another

NATURAL VS. UNNATURAL WOMANHOOD

- Strindberg writes under assumption that natural thing for a woman to do was to get married and have children - Sets out to prove that women increase their suffering by seeking, against their nature, to be equal to men - MJ is trying to undercut her noble birth to have more common with Jean (e.g. J offers her one of her father's best wines to drink and she says she would prefer beer

August Strindberg Context

- Swedish playwright, plays often drew from personal experiences - fathers of Naturalistic Drama - issues of class/ psychological drama - misogyny (manifestation of Strindberg's mistrust for women) portrays them as if their goal is to overpower men - believed aristocracy was an outdated and dangerous social model - associates femininity with submission and masculinity with dominance

Sexual Aristocracy

- biological sex is the true measure of a person's worth rather than inherited wealth - has more finely developed senses and capacity to take initiative - title to MJ is of little value because of her tainted biology. She lacks ability to perform appropriate duties society expects of both a woman and a countess (e.g. disdain marriage, so can't continue family line like a noble women should) - she's not warm and nurturing towards his fiancee, but commanding (and she looses him) - her promiscuity has made her worse than a servant - both are foiled by artificial social constraints of aristocratic European society - sexual openness should be reserved to men

Death of Julie

- comes from inability to conform to the dictates of her gender and class (subordination by Jean, inferiority)

Christine

- cook and Jean's lover - opposite to MJ she models conventional, nurturing femininity, cooking and comforting J - servant (has no designs about improving her social standing and sees the desire to improve one's social position as disloyal - servility and morality - Strindberg. Morality is a weakness (doesn't have the intelligence and drive to succeed in the world). She seals mJ's fate - shames MJ for promiscuity and chastising J for desire to achieve social ascent at the expense of someone else

Ms. Julie

- engagement broke when she attempted to train her fiancee with a whip like a dog - orders Jean to kiss her foot and drink to her health (she praises Jean as an aristocrat because he drinks wine and knows French) - daughter of Count - she's weird (half women) product of her unconventional upbringing - constantly fighting against "natural" womanly imperatives like getting married and having children (its dysphoria that arises so she's unable to survive) - man-hater - embodiment of degeneracy of European aristocracy - unconventional upbringing gave her ideas about female equality and autonomy (going against what is natural for a woman), so make her unable to survive in the world - got engaged to County's attorney "so that he should be my slave" he only wants a relationship in where she can dominate men.

CANARY

- her only companion after her dog ran off with the gatekeeper's pug - MJ allows J to decapitate canary - foreshadows MJ when he slits her own throat at JEan's command

Julie's Mom

- independent woman that raised Julie to believe in female equality - her ideas led family to bankruptcy - mother fell ill and farm burned down - married to dad without truly wanting to - hated idea of conventional female role (raised her in home where there weren't conventional gender/class roles) without needing to adjust to a natural life as a wife and mother - J grew up riding horses, hunt, shoot, wear boy's clothes (generally reserved for male children) - set MJ up for failure (according to Strindberg) - Julie grew up with hatred for men just like her mother (J is disgusted and says they are sick

Count

- manifested through pair of boots sitting on chair - double ringing - fixes social hierarchies at end that seemed to deteriorate throughout play

Jean

- represents/epitomizes "new man" who can climb up society because he is ingenuine and intellect - valet - manipulates MJ as an escape of serviture - displays cold desire to fulful dream of escaping the Count's employ and running his hotel - Strindberg hoped for societal ascendency of self-made men like Jean who adapt and take from their environments to improve their social standing, instead of inheriting power via title/wealth - Jean is adaptable(first plays submissive valet to J and then once he has sexually overpowered her, takes role of master to shame and subjugate her) - MJ listens to J commandments

Plot 2

- suddenly J is emotional, and begs Jean to tell her that he loves her (the more emotional she becomes, the more harsh Jean becomes) - J claimes MJ is a btch (her story was a lie to appeal to her womanly sensitivity) she accepts his abuse because she put herself in the problem - J cries and wishes to die - Christine is angry (for taking advantage of Julie and his infidelity) when J tells her she had sex w MJ - Bell upstairs signals Count is back - MJ is ready to travel with her canary, begs J to flee with her (agrees as long as they leave canar behind, offering to kill it) - after canary dies, MJ screams for J to kill her as wells - screams that she wants to see all men swimming in blood and to drink from Jean's open skull - explains she will confess everything to her dad who will die of shame, ending her bloodline - Christine comes back, MJ begs her to protect her from J - J convinces her that the 3 of them could run away to start Jean's hotel - Christine is like nah you're crazy (I'll tell stable boy to stop you guys if you leave) - MJ feels scared and asks whatJ what he would do in her positions --> he's like, well your reputation as a noblewoman is tainted so there is only one thing to do - J picks up J sharpened razor - Count bell is rung, J is frozen (in his presence J has no authority and he feels himself slipping back into his original role) - J screams MJ to leave - J begs him to pretend to be the Count and give her instructions so J whispers into her ear - Bell rins 2x and J tells Julie to leave him so J walks out of door and (we assume) kills herself (ends bloodline) bc the servants will gossip about father and would ruin his reputation and heart (she fears this) leads her to her demise

Survival of the Fittest

- those who are made strong by their biology will always rise to conquer those whom society artificially props up - Strindberg believes that J is superior to MJ bc he's a man with a strong will to alter his social circumstances and because he is a man (male strength)

Stage directions

- with modest and true womanly feeling - feeling of confinement (confining nature of set) - only in kitchen so true size of house can be guessed at - only exists are towards main house or Jean's room - table diagonal on stage so we can see actors' full face and half profile (so we can pick up even most minute changes in actors' expressions/behaviors which increased claustrophobic nature of play (they know everything)

Antagonist

European aristocracy

Background

When: 1888 Where: Sweden Setting: Kitchen of Count's estate