Miss Julie Themes

In the preface to Miss Julie, August Strindberg explains that his play is a “Naturalist Tragedy.” Strindberg, who is considered one of the foremost naturalist playwrights of his era, was concerned with creating theater that was highly realistic, with characters who were complex and flawed. However, Strindberg also refers to the play as “naturalist” because he viewed Miss Julie and Jean as two characters whose innate natures are betrayed by the way they have each…

In Strindberg’s preface to Miss Julie, he explains that one of the themes he is intent on exploring in the play is the fact that, despite his low birth, Jean’s maleness makes him a “sexual aristocrat” and biologically superior to Miss Julie. This discussion is complimented by the pervasive distinctions that Strindberg draws throughout the play between what is “natural” and “unnatural” behavior for women. In his preface, Strindberg explains that Miss Julie…

At its heart, Miss Julie is a play about two people that are struggling to attain and maintain dominance over one another. Julie uses her nobility and sexuality to dominate Jean, driven by what Strindberg, in his preface, identifies as her aggressive sexuality and her desire to control men. Jean, despite being of lower class, dominates Julie simply by virtue of his masculinity. As Strindberg writes in his preface, “Jean stands above Miss Julie not…

Despite their vast socioeconomic differences, Miss Julie and Jean come together out of a shared desire to escape their current circumstances. Jean, frustrated with life as a valet on the Count’s estate, dreams of a life managing his own hotel in Romania, while Julie seeks to hide from the pressures of her title, which require her to marry and start a family to continue her father’s line. However, the characters must seek their respective escapes…