The Illusion of Freedom in Miss Julie

The Illusion of Freedom in Miss Julie August Strindberg’s Miss Julie is a naturalistic play which deals with the themes of love, lust, and power struggles between social classes and genders. Being a naturalistic play, Miss Julie deals with the upbringing of and the environment surrounding the two main characters, Julie and Jean, and how these factors affect their motivations.

As with the convention in naturalism, the two main characters would have no real control over their fates and instead be subjugated to hereditary and environmental forces. Julie, being of aristocratic descent, seemed to have complete freedom. She had access to the best of luxuries and yet could heavily interact with the servants, such as participating in their Midsummer Eve celebration and dancing with Jean, without severe consequences other than some gossip among the servants.

However, Julie’s gender and upbringing seems to be a great disadvantage and hinders her freedom. Raised by her mother to act like a man and yet despise men and subsequently herself, Julie became what Strindberg refers to as a “man-hating half-woman” (page 60), though this upbringing allowed Julie to ignore the social norms of her time and assert her dominance upon male characters (her fiance and Jean), it is also responsible for her eventual suicide which was implied in the end of the play.

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The illusion of Julie’s supposed freedom is revealed throughout the play, with Jean holding power over her during a significant portion of the play and her father, the Count, being an absent, but nevertheless imposing presence throughout the play, especially in the end. Jean is diametrically opposite to Julie in his heredity, being of common descent and a male, although Jean is well travelled and possesses a degree of sophistication in his speech and manners.

He has access to little resources other than his own ambitions and determination. Jean dreams vaguely of someday opening a hotel and using the profits and prestige gained from such an enterprise to purchase a title and make himself a Count like Julie’s father. Despite the numerous power reversals that occurred after his seduction of Julie, he remains subjugated to authority throughout the play, both to that of Julie and especially her father.

Any reminder of the Count such as his boots, Jean’s inferior clothing, and especially the ringing bell reduced Jean from a normally eloquent or sadistic speaker to a pathetic servant. There were multiple factors, other than the supposed love that was professed by both characters towards one other, which caused Julie and Jean to engage in such a tryst. The Midsummer Eve celebration and its intoxicating drinks and passion-inducing dancing lowered the inhibitions of both characters.

The celebration increased Julie’s lust and her emotional vulnerability from her recently broken engagement with her fiance made Julie vulnerable to Jean’s seduction; his tale of falling in love with her upon laying his eyes on her and subsequently wanting to kill himself because of the obviously lack of romantic relationship that would form between them was especially effective; Julie’s vulnerability to Jean’s seduction could also be attributed to her female sensibilities.

Likewise, the celebration likely emboldened Jean to proceed with his seduction, with Jean’s ultimate goal being using Julie’s wealth to finance his dreams of opening a hotel and becoming a Count. Before Julie’s seduction by Jean, she possessed the power or the appearance of power in the relationship. Jean addressed her respectfully, as befitting a servant talking to his mistress. Julie could toy with Jean and command him to do almost anything, such as forcing him to dance with her or kissing her shoes, as she was of a higher class and had authority over Jean, who was a lowly servant.

However, after Jean’s successful seduction of Julie, the class lines that existed between them were broken down and they were became social equals, thus their relationship shifted focus to power struggles with respect to gender. While Julie still insults Jean regarding his lower social standing, Jean responds with derogatory remarks such as calling her a whore (page 90) for throwing herself at one with such a lower social standing, which was unthinkable for women in her position at the time.

Despite the antagonistic and sadomasochistic relationship that arose between them after the seduction, Julie and Jean still could use each other to benefit themselves. Julie was tired of the social standards that were imposed upon her, thus she desired to fall to Jean’s social level. Whereas Jean, with his grand ambitions of becoming a Count, sought to rise in the social ladder through Julie’s wealth. Julie and Jean were able to temporarily rebel, against the social norms that constrained them, through having an affair despite the immense difference in their social standings.

They planned to further this rebellion through running away together and starting their own hotel. However, this radical plan was stopped by Christine, who prevented the lovers access to horses and their escape, who embodied the social disapproval at the inappropriateness of a tryst between two of such different class and their plan to escape the consequences. Julie and Jean still could have escaped by foot but for the ringing of the bell that signaled the return of the Count.

The Count, whose presence pervaded throughout the story, whose very mention reduced Jean to sniveling servility, and shamed and angered Julie greatly, ultimately held power over both the lovers. Despite never being physically present in the play, the Count still commanded great fear and respect in both Julie and Jean. He symbolized the omnipresence of social authority and the power it commanded over its subjects. The most convincing example of this is in the end of the play, Julie wished to commit suicide to escape her shame and indignity but lacked the willpower to do so.

She implored Jean to command to do so, but he suffered the same problem and lacked the willpower too. Only through hypnotizing himself, by acting as the Count giving him a command, was Jean able to command Julie to commit suicide. Only through both Julie and Jean submitting to the social authority, represented by the Count, was Julie able to achieve the end that she desired. In the end, though Julie and Jean were able to temporarily fight against the environmental forces through their affair and hatching a fantastic escape plan for a new life, neither of the lovers were able to escape their respective upbringings and social classes.

One could argue that Julie was able to rebel against the social authority through suicide which released its power over her; one must also consider that an aristocrat such as her would be ingrained to avoid bringing such great shame upon her family through her upbringing and surrounding environments , thus the social authority is responsible for her suicide, which is almost unsurprising or even expected.

Likewise, Jean was not able to escape the social authority either, he was not able to commit suicide because of his lack of aristocratic pride is replaced with a greater sense of self preservation, thus Jean will suffer the full wrath of the Count and the social authority for causing Julie’s death and attempting to disrupt the social equilibrium.

Ultimately, Jean and Julie have been and always will be subject to the social authority for the entirety of their lives, any control or freedom is merely a temporary illusion which will be broken quickly and dramatically. Work Cited 1. Strindberg, August. Miss Julie and Other Plays. Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.

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