Miss Julie

Miss Julie is the young and beautiful daughter of a Swedish count who occupies a manor somewhere in the country. At the time the play takes place, she has recently broken off her engagement with a young man of her own class. At least initially, Julie comes across as a flamboyant and reckless character. Jean repeatedly refers to her as “crazy” (e.g., 76), and Kristine agrees that the girl has always behaved somewhat unusually. To some extent, Julie’s character can be traced to her mother, who taught her—as Julie says—to hate men and to believe that women can do anything that men can do.

Julie is also naturally impetuous, as the play highlights by her treatment of her previous fiancé (whom she apparently tried to train like an animal) as well as in her flirtation with Jean. At the same time, Julie is representative of the old European aristocracy, with Jean admitting that he had always viewed her as “a symbol of the hopelessness of ever rising out of the class in which [he] was born” (87). Julie is never entirely able to disavow her “blue blood” (106), despite the fact that she makes a point of dancing with her servants or of drinking beer rather than wine.