Miss Julie

by

August Strindberg

If Miss Julie is an embodiment of the degeneracy of European aristocracy, then Jean, Miss Julie’s valet, is the embodiment of the “new man,” who is able to make his way up the ranks of society as a result of his own ingenuity and intellect instead of noble birth or a title. Strindberg explains that “Jean, the valet, is of the kind that builds new stock—one in whom the differentiation is clearly noticeable. He was a [tenant farmer’s] child, and he has trained himself up to the point where the future gentleman has become visible. […] He has already risen in the world, and is strong enough not to be sensitive about using other people's services.” Indeed, throughout the play, Jean displays a cold, ruthless, and rational desire to fulfil his dream of escaping the Count’s employ and running his own hotel, even if it means seducing and manipulating Miss Julie to do it. Jean explains to Miss Julie that he has a dream that he is standing under a large tree, knowing that it would be an easy climb to the top if he could only reach the first branch. Strindberg believed that the aristocracy was an outdated and dangerous social model, and hoped for the societal ascendency of self-made men like Jean, who adapt to and take from their environments in order to actively improve their social standing, instead of inheriting power via a title and wealth. Indeed, Jean is completely adaptable throughout the play. He plays the submissive valet to Julie’s dominant mistress and then, once he has sexually overpowered her, takes the role of master himself in order to shame and subjugate her. Jean is preoccupied with achieving nobility and social status, and takes pride in seducing Miss Julie not only because it could provide his escape from the Count’s estate, but because sullying Miss Julie’s reputation is a way of asserting his superiority to the system of aristocracy which she represents. Yet, despite Jean’s sense of his own superiority, he is still constrained by the obligations of his station in society. When the Count returns from visiting relatives and summons Jean with two rings of his bell, Jean is powerless to fight back. Despite Jean’s disdain for the nobility, he also looks up to the Count, whose fine positions and mastery over his own estate remind him of the possibilities of power and wealth. In the end, Jean commands Julie to kill herself—an order which it seems she follows, attesting to the supremacy of Jean’s powers of cunning and manipulation.

Jean Quotes in Miss Julie

The Miss Julie quotes below are all either spoken by Jean or refer to Jean. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Biology vs. Society Theme Icon
).
Miss Julie Quotes

They were in the stable yard one evening, and the young lady was training him, as she called it. Do you know what that meant? She made him leap over her horse whip the way you teach a dog to jump.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie, Christine
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

The young lady is too stuck up in some ways and not proud enough in others. Just as was the countess when she lived. She was most at home in the kitchen and among the cows, but she would never drive with only one horse.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie, Julie’s Mother
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

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

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

Take my advice, Miss Julie, don’t step down. Nobody will believe that you did it on purpose. The people will always say that you fell down.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

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 I look down, and I must get down, but I haven’t the courage to jump off.

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

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 about high up in the sky.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

And I saw you walking among the roses, and I thought: if it be possible for a robber to get into heaven and dwell with the angels, then it is strange that a cotter's child, here on God's own earth, cannot get into the park and play with the count's daughter.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

Well, it wouldn't be easy to repeat. But I was rather surprised, and I couldn't understand where you had learned all those words. Perhaps, at bottom, there isn't quite so much difference as they think between one kind of people and another.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:

No, Miss Julie, they don't love you. They take your food and spit at your back. Believe me

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:

That's the life, I tell you! Constantly new faces and new languages. Never a minute free for nerves or brooding. No trouble about what to do-for the work is calling to be done: night and day.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

There will be barriers between us as long as we stay in this house… there is the count – and I have never met another person for whom I felt such respect. If I only catch sight of his gloves on a chair I feel small. If I only hear that bell up there, I jump like a shy horse.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie, The Count
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

I? Of course! I have my expert knowledge, my vast experience, my familiarity with several languages. That's the very best kind of capital, I should say.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

I think I read the story in a paper, and it was about a chimney-sweep who crawled into a wood-box full of lilacs because a girl had brought suit against him for not supporting her kid-.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

You're the right one to come and tell me that I am vulgar. People of my kind would never in their lives act as vulgarly as you have acted tonight. Do you think any servant girl would go for a man as you did? Did you ever see a girl of my class throw herself at anybody in that way? I have never seen the like of it except among beasts and prostitutes.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

Don't you see: I could have made a countess of you, but you could never make me a count.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

But I have read about your pedigree in a book that was lying on the drawing-room table. Do you know who was your first ancestor? A miller who let his wife sleep with the king one night during the war with Denmark. I have no such ancestry. I have none at all, but I can become an ancestor myself.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

I can't leave! I can't stay! Help me! I am so tired, so fearfully tired. Give me orders! Set me going, for I can no longer think, no longer act –

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

…but there's after all some difference between one kind of people and another- No, but this is something I'll never get over – And the young lady was so proud, and so tart to the men, that you couldn't believe she would ever let one come near her-and such a one at that!

Related Characters: Christine (speaker), Miss Julie, Jean
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

That’s good and well, but it isn't my style to think of dying all at once for the sake of wife and children. I must say that my plans have been looking toward something better than that kind of thing

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Christine
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

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 think I could drink out of your skull, and bathe my feet in your open breast…

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

I don't know: I believe no longer in anything… Nothing! Nothing at all!

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

Command me, and I'll obey you like a dog! Do me this last favor – save my honor, and save his name! You know what my will ought to do, and what it cannot do-now give me your will, and make me do it!

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean, The Count
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

I cannot command you – and now, since I've heard the count's voice – now – l can't quite explain it – but – Oh, that damned menial is back in my spine again. 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!

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), The Count
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
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Jean Quotes in Miss Julie

The Miss Julie quotes below are all either spoken by Jean or refer to Jean. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Biology vs. Society Theme Icon
).
Miss Julie Quotes

They were in the stable yard one evening, and the young lady was training him, as she called it. Do you know what that meant? She made him leap over her horse whip the way you teach a dog to jump.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie, Christine
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

The young lady is too stuck up in some ways and not proud enough in others. Just as was the countess when she lived. She was most at home in the kitchen and among the cows, but she would never drive with only one horse.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie, Julie’s Mother
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

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

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

Take my advice, Miss Julie, don’t step down. Nobody will believe that you did it on purpose. The people will always say that you fell down.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

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 I look down, and I must get down, but I haven’t the courage to jump off.

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:

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 about high up in the sky.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

And I saw you walking among the roses, and I thought: if it be possible for a robber to get into heaven and dwell with the angels, then it is strange that a cotter's child, here on God's own earth, cannot get into the park and play with the count's daughter.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

Well, it wouldn't be easy to repeat. But I was rather surprised, and I couldn't understand where you had learned all those words. Perhaps, at bottom, there isn't quite so much difference as they think between one kind of people and another.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:

No, Miss Julie, they don't love you. They take your food and spit at your back. Believe me

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:

That's the life, I tell you! Constantly new faces and new languages. Never a minute free for nerves or brooding. No trouble about what to do-for the work is calling to be done: night and day.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

There will be barriers between us as long as we stay in this house… there is the count – and I have never met another person for whom I felt such respect. If I only catch sight of his gloves on a chair I feel small. If I only hear that bell up there, I jump like a shy horse.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie, The Count
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

I? Of course! I have my expert knowledge, my vast experience, my familiarity with several languages. That's the very best kind of capital, I should say.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

I think I read the story in a paper, and it was about a chimney-sweep who crawled into a wood-box full of lilacs because a girl had brought suit against him for not supporting her kid-.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

You're the right one to come and tell me that I am vulgar. People of my kind would never in their lives act as vulgarly as you have acted tonight. Do you think any servant girl would go for a man as you did? Did you ever see a girl of my class throw herself at anybody in that way? I have never seen the like of it except among beasts and prostitutes.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:

Don't you see: I could have made a countess of you, but you could never make me a count.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 20
Explanation and Analysis:

But I have read about your pedigree in a book that was lying on the drawing-room table. Do you know who was your first ancestor? A miller who let his wife sleep with the king one night during the war with Denmark. I have no such ancestry. I have none at all, but I can become an ancestor myself.

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Miss Julie
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:

I can't leave! I can't stay! Help me! I am so tired, so fearfully tired. Give me orders! Set me going, for I can no longer think, no longer act –

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

…but there's after all some difference between one kind of people and another- No, but this is something I'll never get over – And the young lady was so proud, and so tart to the men, that you couldn't believe she would ever let one come near her-and such a one at that!

Related Characters: Christine (speaker), Miss Julie, Jean
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

That’s good and well, but it isn't my style to think of dying all at once for the sake of wife and children. I must say that my plans have been looking toward something better than that kind of thing

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), Christine
Page Number: 28
Explanation and Analysis:

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 think I could drink out of your skull, and bathe my feet in your open breast…

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

I don't know: I believe no longer in anything… Nothing! Nothing at all!

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:

Command me, and I'll obey you like a dog! Do me this last favor – save my honor, and save his name! You know what my will ought to do, and what it cannot do-now give me your will, and make me do it!

Related Characters: Miss Julie (speaker), Jean, The Count
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:

I cannot command you – and now, since I've heard the count's voice – now – l can't quite explain it – but – Oh, that damned menial is back in my spine again. 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!

Related Characters: Jean (speaker), The Count
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis: