–What difference do you think it makes that the play takes place on Midsummer’s Eve?
–What role does the character Kristin play in the drama that takes place largely between Miss Julie and Jean?
–Discuss the symbolism of Miss Julie’s bird. What do you think it means?
–Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
–What does Miss Julie tell Jean about her mother? How might this disclosure help us understand Julie’s character more fully?
What does Miss Julie tell Jean about her mother? How might this disclosure help us understand Julie’s character more fully?
Miss Julie tells Jeans and the audience about her upbringing. Her mother was not born to a noble family, valued equality and freedom, and did not want to get married. However after she and her father did get married, they raised Miss Julie both as a boy and a girl until her father revolted which caused her mother to get sick. Eventually, her mother and her mother’s lover burned the house down to collect the insurance money. This troubled upbringing caused problems in Miss Julie’s life that still affects her. She grew up never having a stable position in life and saw firsthand how money equals power which leads to Miss Julie not being comfortable in her life.
Midsummer’s Eve is time for festivities of both Christians and Pagans in Sweden. The celebrations typically include copious amounts of drinking, which can lead to boundary crossing of lords/ladies and their servants. Without it being a celebration, I don’t believe Miss Julie would be in the state of mind to cross the line with her servant Jean. It is not out of the ordinary for everyone to be in the mood of celebration, on this one night every summer, but without this annual festival there wouldn’t be any scandle within Miss Julie’s home, Midsummer’s Eve is central to the plot of Miss Julie.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize with Miss Julie because I think Miss Julie does not show the audiences who she really is throughout the play. I think it is part of due to the way she was raised. She was raised as both female and male roles in her life. Therefore she does not have a clear understanding of how to behave in order to satisfy with the social norm. Despite the fact that she is rich and seems to be superior to all other people, she is still a minor in terms of her gender identity in the society where she lives in. I think she asks her servant ( a guy) to kiss her foot in order to show her desire of being dominant to others. However, the ending shows that she is unable to be full of control of herself because of her identity.
–Discuss the symbolism of Miss Julie’s bird. What do you think it means?
I think that Miss Julie’s bird symbolizes her sexual innocence. Miss Julie loves her bird very much but she hands it over to Jean. When Jean takes it, he kills it with no remorse. I believe that this relates to Miss Julie’s sexuality because, like with the bird, she gives herself to Jean and he shows no compassion toward her. Jean is just interested in sex and after he gets it he does not want anything to do with Miss Julie. This inevitably leads up to her suicide.
–Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize with Miss Julie due to her sadly childhood and the negative effect her parents bring to her on the way she thinking about man and love. She was raised as both female and male, so the way she behaves does not quality the social norm. As we know, she is a daughter of Count. she should be feel superior than others, and in fact she do. However, she is unable to be full control of herself due to identity that’s why she asks the servant to go with her when she decides to go away.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I definitely sympathize with Ms. Julie as a character. Her upbringing caused her to become confused with right and wrong. She was raised in a way that was opposite of how the world worked at her time. This caused major confusion and difficulty when she became an adult. As a child she was taught to hate men. She was taught that she could do everything a man can and that they were evil. This ideology was forced upon her by her mother who had those types of feelings. But a child still loves their parents regardless of their gender.She loved her father even though he was a man and somehow felt that to be wrong. As an adult she experienced biological urges that went against what she was taught as a child. She wanted to submit to her sexual desires; which made her feel guilty. To harness her urges and use them in a way that she could could exhibit power over men, she used sex as a weapon. She tempted men and wanted to see how much she could control them with the weapon of sex. When she submitted to her desires Jean afterward she regretted it greatly because she felt that she had gone against her upbringing. She is a very confused character. Someone who wants to give the orders and wants to be told what to do as well. Her inability to control/understand how the world works (with the conflict of her mothers ideology) led to her demise.
–Discuss the symbolism of Miss Julie’s bird. What do you think it means?
The symbolism of Miss Julie’s bird is Miss Julie. The bird cannot do anything themselves in the cage. Caged birds cannot fly to the sky and cannot have a feed themselves. I think that Miss Julie’s life seems like a caged bird. At that period, noble people cannot do anything without servants. Servants prepared everything for their landlords such as wearing a clothes and preparing a meals. Thus, I think that the symbolism of Miss Julie’s bird is noble people at that time.
What does Miss Julie tell Jean about her mother? How might this disclosure help us understand Julie’s character more fully?
Miss Julie tells Jean about her mother’s inability to be controlled (particularly by men), and her belief in womens’ rights. She also exposes us to her mother’s scheme in attempts to prove herself superior. This allows us to draw conclusions in regard to the way Miss Julie carries herself; since childhood she was brought up to question authority and the norms imposed on her by society. It also provides us with insight about the conflicting and opposing standards with which she grew up, being raised to be competent in both the role of a boy and a girl.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I definitely sympathize with Miss Julie. Until she tells Jeans her upbringing, I starts to understand the way she behaves before like asking Jeans to kiss her toes. She’s a very sad woman. Even though she’s the daughter of the count, she doesn’t feel superior or happy. what she does is just to satisfy her mind to be ease for a while but it won’t heal her mind too long. Because she was raised up both as a boy and girl and her mother influenced her to hate men, she has distorted her view on gender. She thinks that she could control men by sex, but this is very wrong. she’s kind of misunderstanding the view of her life. Her life is not a tool to compete aganist men but to be enjoyed.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize Miss Julie for the simple fact that she was not raised to know certain things that can be valuable for her when she becomes an adult. As a child, she was brought up with this hatred for men being told that they were quite evil. With this idea, she grew up up strongly into an adult always thinking that. However, when she became an adult, she thought that she can control men with her sexual desires and used that as a weapon. After using her sexual ways on Jean leading him to get the one thing he wanted, he leaves her. I felt sorry for Miss Julie because I feel as if she doesn’t know how to handle things properly. She seems confused and helpless at some points which later we can say that’s what probably caused her death.
What difference do you think it makes that the play takes place on Midsummer’s Eve?
This festival had a custom of decorating with birch branches in leaf, to the folk belief that if unmarried girls collect nine midsummer flowers and sleep with them under their pillows they will dream of their future husbands. The birch twigs in the leaf which decorate scene are traditional Swedish Midsummer accoutrements and symbolize all kinds of good things such as life, joy, celebration and the life force. The flower is another important symbol Strindberg used in the play. It signifies first emotions of love. The dog is third symbol. The plight of a dog named Diana help to foreshadow the plight of Julie. Serena is Julie’s pet dog. Beheading of Serena symbolizes the imminent suicidal contemplation of Julie.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize the Miss Julie. Although Julie attempts to break the relationship about the man wants to slave the women, the women can easily slaved by the feelings. in the emotion, the women have a weakness. So when Miss Julie hears some sweet words, she lose herself. And she dream about the love with the Jean, a servant. Because of her background, she cannot get rid of her family honor and her identity.Miss Julie is not simply seek incarnation of women’s liberation , but with a strong particularity and contradictory character. Under the education of her parents, inner desire and her identification, these leads her to the death.
–What difference do you think it makes that the play takes place on Midsummer’s Eve?
The fact that the play takes place on midsummer’s eve plays a big part on the story turns out. On midsummers eve people are partying and drinking and interacting with people out of their social class. If it wasn’t midsummers eve I don’t think miss Julie would had committed adultery with jean therefor she wouldn’t had committed suicide.
What does Miss Julie tell Jean about her mother? How might this disclosure help us understand Julie’s character more fully?
Julie tells Jean about how her bought an estate to ruin. When her mother became ill, a mysterious fire had burned down the estate. Julie’s mother suggested to Julie’s father that he should borrow money from a friend of hers to rebuild the estate. Jean figured out that Julie’s mother had set the fire and the friend was her lover. Julie said she became just like her mother and developed a hatred for men. I feel like this really helps me understand Julie’s character more because I see how she always likes to flirt with men left and right like she loves to use them.
–What difference do you think it makes that the play takes place on Midsummer’s Eve?
The fact that this play takes place on Midsummer’s Eve shows why there is partying and dancing going on. This type of behavior is very typical on a nice Midsummer Eve because people want to be outside rather than stay home for the night. This also explains why she committed adultery, usually in the Summer is when most cheating occurs (in my opinion!)
–Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize with Miss Julie. She had a difficult childhood where she was very confused and neglected. Her decisions were obviously dumb, but I think some of it can be explained by her upbringing. She was born to a poor mother and then she was raised as a boy. She went from being poor to being well-off. Her life was always very unbalanced. She grew up with a hatred of men, but still decided to sleep with Jean. That decision was brought on by her wanting to show dominance over a man of lower status than her. What she didn’t know was that by doing the deed, she actually lowered herself and had lost the authority that she had held previously. I contribute her mistakes to her not knowing how to deal with her inner conflict.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize with Miss Julie in this play. She was raised as a woman and man, which confuses her sometimes. Miss Julie has no idea how she should act due to some circumstances. For instance, she supposed to feel superior to others since she is rich. She ordered Jean to dance with her and kiss her feet. But she is not happy. She wanted someone there to listen to her. She told Jean about her family and wanted him to help her. It is like there are two Miss Julie, one is her honor and the other one is her emotions. These two are fighting in her head. The saddest part is that she had never show anyone how she really is, even till she died. There is no one understands her. She has nothing. Therefore, she desperately desires love from others; even though it is fake.
I saw Kristin as being a foil to Ms. Julie. Kristin was a “model woman.” She obliged to the will of her fiancee, she cooked and cleaned up after him, and was not sexually “easy,” but coyfully obliged to Jean’s advances. This is in comparison to Ms. Julie who liked to party and sleep around. Jean berated Ms. Julie for being sexually premiscuous and eventually convinced her to kill herself because he saw her as irreparable and irredeemable as a woman. In this way the author nearly just tells the audience to be more like Kristen than to be like Ms. Julie.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
At the beginning of the text/play, I thought that Miss Julie was somewhat rude and mean but by the end, I understood why she she was the way she was and felt sorry for her. Miss Julie is a confused girl, she does not know who she is and she does not know how to express herself. That is probably due to her upbringing. Her mother did not believe in traditional gender roles and raised her as a boy and girl. This led Miss Julie to go against the norms of society and in the end, that costs her her life. She was so insecure about what happened between her and Jean that she chose to kill herself.
Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize with Miss Julie because she was truly the victim in the end of the day. She did something that was looked at as “wrong” by society but to her this was a completely normal act. She had someone there for her and it felt nice to be cared about. In the end she dies because this was not an acceptable act seen by society. Julie did not ask for this in her life she was truly doing what she felt was right.
Yes I sympathize with Julie because she was raised to be like a man or woman. When she reached that certain age she had a conflict with her mind and body. She took it upon to herself to please herself with men. In some way Julie does not deserve the way she is because of her mental problem.
–Do you sympathize with any of the characters in this play? If so, whom? Why?
I sympathize with Miss Julie. Due to family environment, Miss Julie is morally ambiguous, she is not aware that she breaks social norms. She wants to dominate Jean like other men do by sleeping with her servant. However, tension between biological urge and intellectual desires makes Miss Julie kills herself. It is sad to use sexuality as weapon to control men like Jean. At some points, she becomes a masochist, who derives pleasure from having pain on her. She is powerless to control her own life, which leads to her suicide.