Preface to Miss Julie - Yavanika

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570 N inete e nth- and T w entieth-C entur v- Sc andinayia aristocrat. He has the strength of the male, more highly developed senses, and the ability to take the initiative. His inferiority is merely the result of his social environment, which is only temporary and which he will probably slough off along with his livery. His slave nature expresses itself in his awe of the count (the boots) and in his religious superstitions. But he is awed by the count mainly because the Count occupies the place he wants most in life; and this awe is still there even after he has won tl-re daughter of the house and seen how hollow that beautiful shell was. I do not believe that anv love in the "higher" sense can be born from the union of two such different souls; so I have let Miss fulie's love be refashioned in her imagination as a love that protects and purifies, and I have let fean imagine that even his love might have a chance to grow under other social circumstances. For I suppose love is very much like the hyacinth that must strike roots deep in the dark earth before it can produce a vigorous blossom. Here it shoots up, bursts into bloom, and turns to seed ail at once; and that is why it dies so quicklv. Christine-finally to get to her-is a female slave, spineless and phlegrnatic after years spent at the kitchen stove, bovinelv unconscious of her own l.rvpocrisv, and with a full quota of moral and religious notions that serve as scapegoats and cloaks for her sins-which a stronger soul does not require since he is able either to carry the burden of his own sins or to rationalize them out of existence. She attends church regularll' where she deftly unloads unto |esus-that straw man-her household theffs and picks up irom him another load of innocence. She is onlv a secondarv character. and I have deliberateh' done no more than sketch her in-jrrst as I treated the country doctor and parish priest in The Father where I only wanted to draw ordinary evervdav people such as most country doctors and parsons are. That some have found my minor characters one-dimensional is due to the fact that ordinary people while at work are to a certain extent one-dimensional and do lack an independent existence, showing onlv one side of themselves in the performance of their duties. And as long as the audience does not feel it needs to see them from different angles, mv abstract sketches will pass muster. Now as far as the dialogue is concerned, I have broken somewhat with tradition in refusing to make my characters into interlocutors who ask stupid questions to elicit witty answers. I have avoided the symmetrical and mathematical design of the artfully constructed French dialogue and have let rninds work as irregularly as they do in real life, where no subject is quite exhausted before another mind engages at random some cog in the conversation and governs it for a rvhile. M1' dialogue wanders here and there, gathers material in the first scenes which is later picked up, repeated, reworked, developed, and expanded like the theme in a piece of music. The action of the play poses no problems. Since it really involves only
naia August Strindberg >/l re highly developed senses, rity is merelv the result of rnd which he will probably the Count (the boots) and the Count mainly because 'e; and this awe is still there and seen how hollow that r" sense can be born from let Miss Julie's love be re- :ts and purifies, and I have :hance to grow under other ruch like the hyacinih that it can produce a vigorous d turns to seed all at
Page 1 and 2: DMICTHEORY ND CRITICISM Greeks to C
Page 3 and 4: t49-1912 ' a long time seemed to me
Page 5 and 6: ,.dinaia August Strindbery 567 :r,
Page 7: ndinaia I rvoman, that stunted form
Page 11 and 12: dtndyta August Strindbery 577 bly i

Preface to Miss Julie - Yavanika

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