FREE ESSAY ON MISS JULIE

MISS JULIE

In Miss Julie, by August Strindberg wrote about the naturalistic view of human behavior.
He symbolizes the behavior through animal imagery. The animal image Strindberg uses helps
him exemplify his naturalistic view.
The first animal imagery Strindberg uses is the dog. Jean uses the dog imagery to
describe to Kristen how Miss Julie made her ex-fiance act before the break-up. " Why, she
was making him jump over her riding whip the way you teach a dog to jump." A dog is mans
best friend only because a dog is an extremely loyal animal. Having Jean compare what
Miss Julies did to her ex-fiance with what some one would do to a dog shows Miss Julies
drive to be the dominant one or the master. Strindberg again uses the imagery of a dog
when he has Miss Julie say, "dog who wears my collar" to Jean. Miss Julie feels that her
social status is so much superior to that of Jean that their relationship could be
compared to that of a master and his dog. The dog imagery in the play is also used to
demonstrate the difference in social classes. In the play Miss Julie's dog, Diana, is
impregnated by the lodge-keepers pug. Kristen demonstrates Miss Julie's disgust when she
says; "She almost had poor Diana shot for running after the lodge-keepers pug." The
sexual affair between the dogs also represents the sexual affair between Jean and Miss
Julie and how the two of them look down on each other. Jean looks down on Miss Julie for
being surprisingly easy to obtain. While Miss Julie looks down on Jean for being a
servant of hers and of a lower social class. In the play Miss Julie says that she would
have killed Jean like a wild beast and Jean goes on to compare it to the killing of a mad
dog. Jean comparing himself to a mad dog also shows how Miss Julie feels that Jean is a
sick animal and deserves to die. 
Like the imagery of the dog Strindberg uses the imagery of a horse. Jean says that, "A
dog may lie on the Countess's sofa, a horse be stroked on the nose by a young lady, but a
servant." In that quote Jean suggests that a servant is unable to socialize with the
upper class, while dogs and horses are. Jean also compares himself to a horse when his
master rigs his bell. " I've only to hear his bell upstairs and I start like a shying
horse." The simile of comparing Jean to a shying horse also has an ironic overtone,
because a horse is a very powerful animal and why should a powerful animal shy to a
weaker animal. That shows a good comparison to Jean physical stature and his outlook on
the social structure of society that is around him. A horse also symbolizes work and that
is Jean main plot in life. 
The last animal imagery used in the play is that of a hawk. Jean explains Miss Julie what
the world looks like from the lower class. "Do you know how the world looks from below?
You don't. Like hawks and falcons, whose backs one rarely sees because they usually hover
above use." The symbolism of the hawk and only see the under side is actually showing
that since Miss Julie is part of the upper class she is able to see the Hawks back. While
Jean is part of the lower class and is only able to see its underside. The hawk also
represents how wealthy people feel as if they are flying above everyone. Another, symbol
in the story about classes is Jeans dream of climbing a tree. The climbing of the tree
symbolizes Jean struggle to succeed in life and become part of the upper class. On the
other hand Miss Julie also has a dream "I have a dream...I have climbed to the top of a
pillar, and I am sitting there without any possibility of getting down." This is the flip
side of Jeans dream Miss Julie is already on top of the social spectrum and is unable to
get down or mingle with the servants and if she does they all look down on her.
Strindberg again uses the imagery of a hawk after Jean and Miss Julie are intimate. This
time he changes it and says that the back of the hawk was also gray and that it color was
just powder. That signifies that Jean believes that he is actually equal to his masters
regardless to his social status. The powder on the back of the hawk is used to disguise
the hawk just as it would do to disguise a human. 
The animal imagery in the Miss Julie demonstrates how society looks down upon the people
they feel are inferior to them. It also symbolizes the never-ending struggle for one to
succeed in society and become a person of a higher status.