Miss Julie: Caricatures or Characters?

This was a difficult play for me to read. This was likely partly due to the translation, which read very unnaturally to me. The characters were unrealistically long-winded, and their personalities exaggerated. Jean is extremely cruel when he says, “Do you think any servant girl would throw herself at a man that way? Have you ever seen a girl of my class asking for it like that? I haven’t. Only animals and prostitutes (p. 599).” Miss Julie is still essentially his boss, yet Jean abuses her repeatedly. I would point out that this sort of treatment during that time period – even if there was an affair between mistress and servant – would probably not be tolerated or risked, if it weren’t for Miss Julie’s overly spineless personality, which makes the whole thing possible, at least in the context of the play. While Jean is insulting her, she cries, “Help me, help me! Tell me what to do, where to go (p. 601).” She barely puts up a defense to his name-calling, but worse, she doesn’t take any responsibility for her own actions. These two are more like charactures than characters.