August Strindberg in the play ‘Miss Julie’ communicates the complicated and conflicted mind of the character Miss Julie through her actions in the play. Despite her materialistic fortune, her parents’ absence throughout her life, her mother’s lies, and rejection of her as a girl & a daughter shapes her into an empty shell of a person. The story reveals her effort to escape the cipher of her being as she ‘uses’ Jean and in the end commits suicide, in order to not be a nothing even if it means to be reduced, to feel pain / death.
Miss Julie is a cipher in many ways. Her family’s wealth is supposed to be a positive aspect in her life. Yet she seems to feel oppressed by it, with the expectations and being defined by a level of class. Her approach towards Jean is reasonable if she wants to lower her class and be equal with a butler. And she admits this as she …show more content…
She has been through this her whole life, thus makes her ‘cipher’ significant. This might be a reason for her strange actions in the play, and not just the sleeping with Jean, but also the suicide. If she has an issue with the lack of the ability to feel, the sex might be a form of waking up. “Tell me you love me, otherwise … what am i?”. With being a cipher, Miss Julie needs other people’s recognition and feeling towards her to establish the fact that she does exist. The sexual intercourse is a powerful medium for her to feel again. The same thing goes with her suicide. She kills herself to repay her father as a revenge for her mother’s actions in the past. “And now my mother will be revenged again, through me”. It seems that the act of suicide for her father, made a purpose in her life. Therefore it’s also a way out from her cipher being. Giving her father the revenge, allows her to have a role which removes her from a nothing. As well as strengthen her relationship with her father, as a result, building an identity for herself as
Miss Julie is a cipher in many ways. Her family’s wealth is supposed to be a positive aspect in her life. Yet she seems to feel oppressed by it, with the expectations and being defined by a level of class. Her approach towards Jean is reasonable if she wants to lower her class and be equal with a butler. And she admits this as she …show more content…
She has been through this her whole life, thus makes her ‘cipher’ significant. This might be a reason for her strange actions in the play, and not just the sleeping with Jean, but also the suicide. If she has an issue with the lack of the ability to feel, the sex might be a form of waking up. “Tell me you love me, otherwise … what am i?”. With being a cipher, Miss Julie needs other people’s recognition and feeling towards her to establish the fact that she does exist. The sexual intercourse is a powerful medium for her to feel again. The same thing goes with her suicide. She kills herself to repay her father as a revenge for her mother’s actions in the past. “And now my mother will be revenged again, through me”. It seems that the act of suicide for her father, made a purpose in her life. Therefore it’s also a way out from her cipher being. Giving her father the revenge, allows her to have a role which removes her from a nothing. As well as strengthen her relationship with her father, as a result, building an identity for herself as