The Illusion of Freedom in Miss Julie

The Illusion of Freedom in Miss Julie August Strindbergs Miss Julie is a realistic depend which deals with the themes of love, lust, and ply struggles between complaisant classes and genders. Being a naturalistic play, Miss Julie deals with the upbringing of and the environment skirt the dickens 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 contagious 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, much(prenominal) as participating in their Midsummer Eve jubilance and dancing with denim, without severe consequences some other than some gossip among the servants.However, Julies gender and upbringing seems to be a great disadvantage and hinders her freedom. increase by her mother to act like a man and yet despise men and later 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 priapic characters (her fiance and dungaree), it is also responsible for her eventual suicide which was implied in the end of the play.The illusion of Julies speculate freedom is revealed by means ofout the play, with jean holding fountain over her during a significant portion of the play and her father, the face, being an absent, but nevertheless imposing carriage throughout the play, specially in the end. blue 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 give birth ambitions and determination. Jean dreams vaguely of someday opening a hotel and development the profits and prestige gained from much(prenominal) an enterprise to purchase a title and make himself a Count like Julies father. Despite the numerous power reversals that occurred subsequently 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, Jeans inferior clothing, and especially the ringing bell reduced Jean from a normally eloquent or sadistic speaker to a pathetic servant. There were eightfold 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 change magnitude Julies lust and her emotional vulnerability from her recently busted engagement with her fiance made Julie insecure 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 want of romantic relationship that would form between them was especially effective Julies vulnerability to Jeans seduction could also be attributed to her female sensibilities.Likewise, the celebration likely emboldened Jean to proceed with his seduction, with Jeans ultimate goal being using Julies wealth to finance his dreams of opening a hotel and becoming a Count. Before Julies 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 eitherthing, 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 Jeans successful seduction of Julie, the class lines that existed betw een them were impoverished down and they were became social equals, thus their relationship shifted focus to power struggles with respect to gender. While Julie windlessness 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 out or keeping(p) and sadomasochistic relationship that arose between them after the seduction, Julie and Jean still could use each other to value themselves. Julie was tired of the social standards that were imposed upon her, thus she desired to fall to Jeans social level. Whereas Jean, with his cat valium ambitions of becoming a Count, sought to rise in the social ladder through Julies 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 thei r 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 incorrectness 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 embarrassd 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 have goted the same puzzle 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 Julies 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.