t 406 ~~, UNTr iv DRAMA AND THEATER IN MODERN EUROPE AUGUST STRINDBERG ‘The Swedish playwright August Stindberg (1849-1912) was a modern Renaissance man—he wrote sree ees satobigapbizl nove anda ay ofsientScandocult eds wl A le aaa rere cr urges warked Sindee an ar ected in is ose ming i } stoked nf toaity ow be, who seene Standby acta ne oe in rane aio, Calling A Doll House ike athe” Stndberg ote The Father 188) we ein tena lay invwhich aeulating wen dives her husband into males Although Ms ' Stee eeemaeed fe ply to bean experiment inthe new “oats” iis eal Kindo tec f psychological thriller: the characters are so const umed by their sexual combat with one another that res) : aot otsnent hal seems important, Sinber set the ly t0 Zola, who found & = | eee ern bt lacking inthe material ol vey be demanded ofthe ney aa, ie Sas ec uote Mis Je (1888) ao considered the py’ use of ratalism in is amore e ee Tec bat ofthe was sone of Siders preneeupatos, examined nase ie err tadioy Citar (188) and The Dance of Death, Part 1 ard 2190) y rant the ss var ao te btle at oocupied Stindbergfe outside the thet Hi e three harps inetd prods of yehologal breakdown and creative fel. His brakiona aa oon ae raring Ms sean wits documented in Te fer (1597) andi sp S aie ct guint svolute and unable une of mind. Much of Sender’ manic energy vs cc eae or comen he bevel hts fe wx aterpting odie him od by senting se ie sei drew, Suindbes as developed pion or he olan foralchemy, ain adon is aaa wae tad non, hwrolea nue ofsenifcand peodsientcreatss, Unie fe Moar gstented ina vay fate gene roughout hier. Cling hse a q ce stepda ccc” Sndberg wroteon influential seis of expesonist and symbolic ply the aero Damas Gn te pts, 198-190) and A Dear Ply (90). He ao a ae ee att ly on Swedish sey, including Ek XIV (1899), Gustav Adolph (1910, fz wre Gn 1902) Tn 1907 be founded a sal tester ~ the Tnste These ~ wich brought ® aan ent thecer noverent to Snedn and produced his intense and en bolic sexes of = Pe er a cating The Gh Sonata ISG) and The Pelion (907), When Stndber ded = serie ariel bone nately the mos signa iteay ad thst gurein Sesh isto, * ‘but also a major influence on the course of modem drama, ¢ it Miss Julie : Denies eng, Mis usa ocd example of Sinden suberive aide ward the some i eae raiater The pay concerns the intense, erate sage even Jean a i : den tthe place stonseinthematenal worl the inhabit and nthe shadowy alm of : se et Ha blque anglcon ei sugested in Stndbers opening sae ies 4 race stag micateg only, tard te autince, exating the impresion of el nd i re ite Suindberg se ihe ape a an ang, acknowledging that out vison of the ‘ ct Reinbalaneet skewed. The sting creates 9 eal enzonmentfor the characte, bt I Saar lees the mbole Cupid upstage andthe sige of Jai fates, the Count HI Fanner hrs abet pene weighs onthe sone» dsb eminde ofthe sal i Faaaaee ee seme, pone by the speaking tbe and he ez, plsed ing boos 4 aed spr i “The play is set on Midsummer's Night; teditionally-o-holiday-of festive release ut here the cccasion for 8 duel tothe death, as Jean fights to possess and destroy Julie. Miss Jule is at ance @ Complex prychological drama and an examination ofthe dynamics of power governing the relations between clases and between men and wornen, Much as Julie represents the forbidden pleasures of the upper classes to Jean, she als represent the process of is own degradation the story ofhis escape from her garden through the outhouse provides an emblem of his experience in relation to the privileged upper classes ofthe play. Yet if Jean is kapped in sevtude, Julie i no less trapped by the Conventional society that hems her in and by the ferocious erotic combat that Strindberg sees & definitive of mature sexualitySTRINDBERG — PREFACE ~ "TRANSLATED BY EVERT SPRINCHORN Like the ars in general, the theater has fora longtime seemed to me a Biblia Pauperum, a picture Bible forthose who cannot read, and he playwnight merely aly preacher who avs the test ideas in poplar form, so popular thatthe mide classes—the bulk ofthe audiences —can grasp ther without acking heir brains too moc, That explains why the theater has always been an elementary {choo for youngsters and the half-deted, and for women, who stl tain a primitive capacity for deeciving themselves and for lting themselves be deceive, thai, for succursing to illusions and responding hypnoticlly tothe suggestions of the author. Consequently, now thatthe rudimentary dnd undeveloped mental proceses that operate inthe realm of fantasy appea tobe evolving to the lnvel of reflection, research, and experimentation, I believe that the theater, ike religion, is about to be replaced as a dying institution for whose enjoyment we lck the necessary qualifications. Support formy view is provided by the theater ess through which ll of Europe snow asin, and stil mote by the fact hat in those highly cultured lands which have produced the finest minds of our time — England and Germany the drama i ead, a for the mst pt are the other fine ats ‘Other countries, however, have though to create anew drama by filling the od forms with new contents. But since tere has st been enough time to populatize the new ideas, the public cannot tndesand them, And in the second place, conttvensy has 0 stined up the public that they ean no Tonge ook on witha poe and dispassionate interest, expecially when they ee ther most cherished ideals assed or hear an applauding or booing mejoity openly exercise its tyrannical power, as can fappen inthe theater, And inthe third place, snes the new forms forthe new ideas have not been created, the new wine bas burst the old bots. In the ply that follows have not tried to accomplish anything new-—that i impossible. Ihave nly tied to moderne the frm to sats what elieve up-to-date people expect and demand ofthis fit And with that in ind Ihave seized upon —orletmypel be seized by —a theme tat may be sid tolie outside curent party stile, since the question of being on the vay up or onthe way dawn the social ladder, ofbeing onthe tp or n the bottom, supeior or inferior, man or woman, is, has been, snd wil be of perennial intrest. When I took this theme from rel ife— heard about ita few yeats 2oanditmadea deep impression on me—I hough it would bea suitable subjectfora tragedy, since isl sis usa tragic to sea happily favored individual go down in defeat, and even moreso tosee an entice family line die out. But perhaps atime wll come when we shal be so highly developed and s0 enlightened that we can lock wth indifference upon the bra nical, and heatles spectacle tht Ife ofers us tne when we shall have lid aside those inferior and unreliable mechanical apparatuses called emotions, which wil become superfluous and even barmfol as our mental organs develop. The fact that my heroine wins sympathy ide ently tothe factthat we are stil too weak to cvetore the far hat he same fate might overtake vs. The extemel sensitive viewer wil ofcourse note satisfied with mere expressions of sympathy, and the man who belies in progress wll demand thatcerain postive actions be taken fo eng rd of the evi, aking of program, in other words. But in the fnt place absolute evil does nat exis. The decline of one family isthe making of another, which now gts ts chance toss. This alternate rising and falling provides one of lifes greatest leanne, for happines i, after all relative, As forthe man who has «program for changing the ‘isagreable circumstance that the hawk eats the chicken and that ice eat up the hawk, Ishould ike ‘oaskhim why ichould be changed. Life isnot prearanged with such idiot mathematical precision ‘hat only the lager gts to est the smaller. Just as frequently the bee destroys the ion (in Aesop {be)—o atleast ves hin wild 1F my tagedy makes mest people feel sad, that it their fault. When we get to be as strong asthe fist French Revlutionists wer, we shall be pesfcty content and happy to watch the forests being cleared ofrotng, speranntd trees thathave stood to longi he way of oer wit ustas much Fahtto gow and fous fora while—as content as wear when ve sean incusbl ill man finally de Recently my tragedy Te Father was censured fr being oo unpleasant —asione wanted merry ‘egeties “The joy fife is now the logan ofthe day. Theater manages send et orders for nothing bot faces, asf he joy oflving lay in behaving like a clown and in depeting people as ithey were afl with St, Vitae dance or congenital diocy. find the oy of ving inthe Herc and rathless tates oie and my pleasure comes rom leming something, fom being taught something. Thats or Ne Miss JULTEDRAMA AND THEATER IN MODERN EUROPE hy have chosen for my play an unusual but instctive ese, an exception, in other words—butan important exception ofthe kind that proves the rule —a choice of subject that I know will offend all 4 lovers ofthe conventional. ‘The next thing that will bother simple minds is that the mativation forthe ‘ction isnot simple and that the point of view is not single. Usually an event in life and this is fady new discovery—isthe result of whole series of more or less deep-rooted causes. The spectton hovsever, generally chooses the one that puts the least train an his mind or eeflecs most credit on hi, insight. Consider a case of suicide. "Business failure,” says the merchant. "Unhappy love say the women. “Physical illnes,"says the sick man, “Lost hopes,’ says the down-and-out. Butt maybe thot the reason lay in all ofthese or in none of them, and thatthe suicide hid his teal reason behind completly diffrent one that would reflec greater glory on his memory. have motivated the tragic fate of Miss Julie wth an abundance ofeccumstances her mothers basi instnets, her father’ improper bringing-up ofthe girl, her own inborn nature, and her bance sway over her weak and degenerate mind. Further and more immediately: the festive atmosphere of Midsummer Eve, her fathers absence, her period, her preoccupation with animal, the erotic excite ment ofthe dance, the long summer twilight, the highly aphrodisiac influence of flowers, and finally chance itself, which drives two people together in an out-of the-way oom, plus the boldness of the axoused man, Asone can see, [have not been entirely the physiologist, not been obsesively psychological, not traced everything to her mother’s heredity, not found the sole cause in her period, not atibuted «everything to our “immoral times,” and not simply preached a moral lesson. Lacking s priest, have let the cook handle that, Tam proud to say that this complicated way of looking at things i in tune with the times, And if others have anticipated me in ths, Tam proud that [am not alone in my paradoxes, discoveries are called. And no one can say this time that I am being one-sided As far asthe drawing of characters is concerned, I have made the people in my play fitly ‘haacterles" forthe following reasons, In the course of time the word character has acquiced many ‘meanings. Originally it probably meant the dominant and fundamental ait inthe soul complex and was confused with temperament Later the middle class used itto mean an automaton. An individual ‘who once forall had found his own true nature or adapted himself a certain role in life, who in fact Jhad ceased to grow, was called a man of character, while the man who was constantly developing, ‘who, like a skilful ssilor on the currents of life, did not sail with cloe-tied sheets bit who fell off before the wind in oder to luff again, was ealled a man of no chatacter —derogatorily of couse, since he was so dificult to keep track of, to pin down and pigeonhole. This middle-class conception of 2 fixed character was transfered to the stage, where the middle clas has always ruled. A character thee came to mean someone who was always one and the same, always drunk, always joking, alvays ‘melancholy, and who needed to be characterized only by some physical defect such a club foot, a wooden leg, ora red nose, or bythe repetition of some such phase a, “That's capital” or "Bark is willin” This uncomplicated way of viewing peopl stil to be found in the reat Moliéce. Harpagon is nothing but a mise, although Harpagon could have been both a miser and an exceptional finan et, fine father, anda good citizen. Worse sil, his defect” is extremely advantageous toh soins law and his daughter who willbe his heixs and who therefore should not find fult with him, even if they do have to wait while to jump into bel together. So I do not believe in simple stage characters And the summary judgments that writers pas on people —he is stupid, this one is brutal, that one is jealous, this one is stingy, and so on ~should not pss unchallenged by the naturalists who know how ‘complicated the soul is and who cealize that vice has a reverse side very much like vist Since the persons in my play are modern charactty, living in @ transitional ea moce hectic and hysterical than the previous one at east, Ihave depicted them as more unstable, as torn and divided, & mixture ofthe old andthe new. Nor docs itseem improbable to me that modern ideas might also have seeped down through newspapers and kitchen talk othe level ofthe servants. Consequently the valet ‘may belch forth from his inherited slave sou certain modern ideas, And if there are those who find it wrong to allow people in a modem drama to talk Darwin and who recommend the practice of Shakespeare to our afention, may I remind them thatthe gravedigger in Hamlet talks the then fashionable philosophy of Giordano Bruno (Bacon's philosophy), which is even more improbable, seeing thatthe means of spreading ideas were fewer then than now. And besides, the facto the mate