Sophie Cox

Julie Wunsch

History of Theatre 2

April 10, 2023

The play, Miss Julie, follows Julie and Jean who are two completely different status

levels. Julie is the Court’s daughter, while Jean is a valet and servant to the Court, who is

married to Christine, another servant. Jean explains why he thinks Julie is going crazy because

of her engagement breaking up because of how she treated her former fiancé, by forcing him

to jump through a hoop with a whip like a dog. The story then continues as Julie asked Jean

for a dance, using her rank as a ruse to get him to agree, and when flirting Jean tells a

childhood story of how he used to love Julie. Once they have sex, Jean says he cannot live in

Julie’s house anymore as they will be tempted to continue their sexual relations if they do.

They then agree to run away together and start a hotel. When Julie tries to bring her bird

along, Jean cuts the head off the animal. They are then caught by Christine telling them the

court has returned, and they lose their motivation to continue their plan. Julie, desperate, asks

Jean what to do, he then hands her a razor and she goes off to commit suicide.

I believe this story was written to show the ugliness of fallen out marriages and class

levels and how being a woman can affect your role in society. For example, Julie uses her

class level as what can be seen as an advantage, but it is really not a good thing in retrospect

because she forced him to dance with her, while he hesitated and did not want to, claiming she

was higher than her so she deserves it. Then, on the other hand with Jean, once they have sex,
he strips her of her status and no longer wants anything to do with her since he got what he

wanted.

I think it is important to present this play today to show a contrast in what we usually

see, which is a man having a higher status then women, and something we always see, which

is a man taking advantage of a woman in order to get something he wants. It is shown in many

plays, but I believe it is important to continue to jam into people’s heads so people start

actually listening to it and seeing the pattern in not only plays, movies, shows, but also in real

life. Women are constantly seen as sex objects, and even when a man has a lower status then a

woman, she is still seen as someone you could have sex with and nothing else.

An audience member after watching this show or reading the play can think it is

repetitive and shown too much in plays, but I think this can be used as an advantage to drill it

into people’s heads like I mentioned before.