Fröken Julie

At the heart of the relationship between a man and a woman is the war for power

August Strindberg was one of the first to draw attention to the fact that the relationship between a man and a woman is based on a war for power. In the play, he also aggravates this war, turning everything upside down in social terms: a woman has a higher social status and more power than a man. In Miss Julie, it is social differences that make Jean’s love for Julie utopian and impossible. Love becomes the more passionate, burning and hysterical, the farther and unattainable the object of this love is.

The action of the play takes place on the eve of the Ivan Kupala holiday, when the pagan forces of nature wake up, when everything is possible, when wishes are made, when the aroma of flowering fills the world with sharpness of smells and sensations.

The night, filled with voluptuousness and the expectation of love, confused all class boundaries, threw the valet and the count’s daughter into each other’s arms, confused their relationship, pushed them to actions that they thought about only with the onset of dawn.