Sexuality In August Strindberg's Miss Julie

The notion of sexuality has consistently been a controversial and shameful subject matter in literature and to a larger extent, in our culture. There seems to be no celebration of female sexual agency however a woman chooses to carry herself: in austerity or in lust. Women who are virgins are condemned for being stubborn and unpleasant while women who are not virgins are shamed for being promiscuous and “spoiled”. Due to these expectations and designations being established over periods of time, any display of either would be socially humiliating and disgraceful. There appears to be a very thin veil defining a woman in her sexuality. August Strindberg plays up on this theme of sexuality in his naturalist playwright, Miss Julie, a narrative on two characters’ switch in social class. Each character specifically embodies a

Each character’s sexual morals and sexual agency represents separate overarching ideas: Miss Julie is progressive although fails to endure throughout the entirety of the play, Christine is traditionalist although is successfully able to maintain her senses, while Jean is selfish but gains in rank due to being so. Strindberg attempts to conceptualize female sexual relations through a feminist and a naturalist lens, which would very likely be startling to 19th-century audiences. It is difficult to perceive which morality Strindberg himself believes in, as he contrasts feminism with misogyny, modern with traditional, naturalist with religious, however in doing so, he is able to encompass all perspectives into his play for audiences to perceive. Strindberg emplaces us with the rather depressing suggestion that it is difficult for modern attitudes to break the boundaries of what standards have been established and if one were to do so they will meet their inevitable