Characters Discussed
Miss Julie
Miss Julie, a headstrong young woman, the daughter of a count. She has derived from her mother a hatred of men and of women’s subservient role. As the drama begins, the household servants are scandalized over the circumstances of Miss Julie’s broken engagement: She had made her fiancé jump over her horsewhip several times, giving him a cut with the whip each time, and he had left her. Subsequently, she takes advantage of her father’s absence to join the holiday dancing of the servants. She makes love to her father’s not unwilling valet, Jean, and then shifts helplessly and impractically from one plan of action to another: running off alone, running off with the valet, a suicide pact when they become tired of each other, and taking his fiancée, who naturally objects to being deserted, with them. When Jean kills Miss Julie’s pet finch, at her command, her love turns to hate. Then, ecstatic at the thought of freedom through suicide, she takes her lover’s razor and leaves the room.
Jean
Jean, Miss Julie’s lover and her father’s valet. His first suggestion is that they go to Como, Italy, to open a hotel. Later, he takes Miss Julie his razor and indicates it as one answer to her plea for advice. The return of his master, the count, reduces him again to the menial attitudes of a servant.
Christine
Christine, a cook and Jean’s fiancée. She loves him and does not intend to lose him to Miss Julie. She refuses Miss Julie’s offer to go along with them to Como and announces as she leaves for church that she has spoken to the stable men about not letting anyone have horses until after the count’s return.