Hedda Gabler Vs. Miss Julie Essay - 1,901 words

Hedda Gabler vs. Miss Julie The plays Miss Julie and Hedda Gabler of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen have many familiar motifs, which makes one to wonder about whether the main themes of both plays had been originated by the realities of 19th century, as many critics suggest, or by the specifics of Scandinavian existential mode alone. Both Strindberg and Ibsen are known for their traditionalist social stance. No wonder that by the time when feminism began to gain more and more influence, both authors rightfully considered it to be the threat to the societys well-being. In my opinion, the importance of two plays lies in the fact that the feminist abnormality is shown there not through the lenses of conventional morality, but from the position of psychiatry. This causes the whole concept of feminism to lose its innovative appeal. One of the biggest similarities between the two plays, which is going to be analyzed more closely in this paper, is the influence, exercised by the plays transcendent characters, such as Count and Aunt Rina.


Let us outline the plot of each play briefly, so that we can proceed further with our analysis. Miss Julie is a story of woman, who suffers from her desire to exercise authority over men and her subconscious attraction to them on physical level, even though her feminist views contradict the desires of her body. Miss Julie appears to be the typical feminist, whose psyche is divided on metaphysical level. This eventually leads to her demise. We learn that she just broke off her engagement, because of her continuous attempts to humiliate her future husband by using whip to train him. She provokes her valet Jean to have a sexual intercourse with her, because she thinks that her humiliation would bring her the ultimate pleasure.


Yet, quite unexpectedly to herself, Julie realizes that she is falling in love with Jean. Jean tries to take the advantage of this situation, as he thinks that Julie might be able to help him out financially. He pretends that he had always loved Julie, while in reality he despised her over the fact that her high social status would never allow Jean to even approach her under the normal circumstances. After having learned that Julie does not have any money, Jean tells her the truth. Being emotionally shattered, Julie nevertheless remains resolute to win Jeans love, but it all ends up in tragedy, as it is not just the class difference that divides them but also a completely opposite worldviews. Jeans depravity is shown as a result of his belonging to the lower social strata, while Julies sickness expresses itself despite her being a patrician. She kills herself, after being hypnotized by Jean, who talked to her as her father, in order no associate himself with her death.


The play Hedda Gabler is much more complicated structurally. Jurgen and Hedda Tesman return after their honeymoon to their hometown in Norway. Yet, Hedda grows more and more dissatisfied with her marriage and the prospects in life that it offers. She dreams of being able to influence the lives of other people, but she clearly has no talent for it. She learns that Jurgens old friend Eilert comes to the town and that apparently it is just a matter of time before he becomes famous. While partying with Jurgen and Judge Brack, Eilert loses his manuscript, which he refers to as his child. Jurgen finds it and brings it home with a purpose of returning it to Eilert later, yet he forgets about it because of aunt Rinas death. Hedda gets hold of this manuscript and destroys it.


She also offers Ejlert one of her revolvers to, so that he can shoot himself. After a while, Heddas involvement with the death of Ejlert becomes apparent. In order to escape the unpleasant consequences of it, she shoots herself. Throughout the plays, both Count and Aunt Rina do not appear on the stage, yet main characters continuously refer to them in their dialogues. In Miss Julie, Count represents the repressive authority, which is omnipresent, although not necessarily visible. Author clearly makes mockery of Christianity, by making Counts behavior to resemble the Cods way of treating its subjects, which is known to us from the Old Testament. Just as God, Count is very scrupulous, when it comes to dealing with pretty details.


Julie tells Jean of how Count became very angry one time over the fact that she wore a shorter skirt than she always used to. Yet, when Counts presence is utterly necessary to deal with his daughters mess and to prevent her from killing herself, he only manages to remind of its existence by the rings of bell. The Christian God is also known to have given people the exact measurements for the length of priests garment, yet the genocide of millions of people do not seem to bother him at all. When Jean asks Julie if she loved his father, she says: Yes, deeply. But I have probably hated him too, I must have - without being aware of it. And it is due to my father's training that I have learned to scorn my own sex. Between them both they have made me half man, half woman.


Whose is the fault for what has happened--my father's? My mother's? My own? I haven't anything of my own. I haven't a thought which was not nay fathers--not a passion that wasn't my mother's. And last of all from my betrothed the idea that all people are equal (Strindberg). When we take into consideration of what is being said earlier, it appears that the Counts absence is necessary to create the illusion of his invisible presence. Had Count showed up, he woul ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: hedda gabler, hedda, julie, aunt, count

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