Miss Julie

Miss Julie

Class conflict is a universal theme that can be seen in Miss Julie. Much of the action of Miss Julie focuses on the conflict between the upper and lower classes. Both Julie and Jean are unhappy with their class positions. Julie is an aristocrat that has a recurring dream that she is at the top a pillar but wants to come down to the ground. Jean, the servant, also has a recurring dream that he conversely sees himself struggling to climb a tree in order to obtain the golden eggs at the top. Julie, although she is mistress of the house, attends and participates in the servants' parties. Jean is fussy about his food and drink, speaks with somewhat of an attitude, and plans to escape his role as a servant, open his own hotel, and become a count like his employer.

Despite the desires of these two, they are destined to remain in the class they were born in. Julie is at heart an aristocrat, and Jean despite his developed playacting, has the soul of a servant. While she wants to belong to their common class, Julie also snobbishly states that she honors her servants with her presence at their dance and she alternates between begging Jean to treat her as an equal and ordering around. Jean tells about his ambitions, but after his sexual encounter with Julie, he desperately searches for a way to keep his lowly position and tells Kristine she must respect her mistress.

Modern audiences can still relate to this play because in some way almost all of face class conflict every day. Lots of people strive to be something they’re not every day or wonder what it is’s like to be in a different/higher social position for various personal reasons. Many people look at their status today and wish it was something different than reality.

Gender conflict can be talked about as one of the universal themes as well. In Miss Julie, there is some flirtation between Julie and Jean at the beginning of the play, there is no sense that their following sexual encounter coming from love,...