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STRINDBERG AND LAGERKVIST It is a fact that he has meant the renewal of the modern drama, and thereby also the gradual ren~wal of the theatre. It is from him and through him that naturalism received the criti(:al blow even if, moreover, it is also Strindberg who gave naturalism its most intense dramatic work.l HERE ONE OF THE BEST-KNOWN living Swedish dramatists, Par Lagerkvist , comments on his compatriot, August Strindberg, and gives some indication both of the scope and significance of Strindberg's dramatic production and of the influence Strindberg has exerted over the younger playwright. Strindberg himself would no doubt have approved of Lagerkvist's words, for at one stage in his career he considered himself Sweden's first naturalistic playwright, while after the Inferno crisis he attempted to create something new in drama. In 1888 he despatched the manuscript of Froken Julie to Bonniers with a covering letter in which he proclaimed his playas "the first naturalistic tragedy in the history of Swedish drama," and certainly it embodies the main characteristics associated with naturalism. The plot is based on a true story which Strindberg develops into a 'case history' in the true Zola manner. He applies Taine's doctrine of the three main factors which govern human destiny: la race~ le milieu~ and le moment. For Strindberg, la race implies, in the case of Miss Julie, the aristocracy, le milieu is the Swedish estate where the action takes place, and le moment embraces the points he mentions in his preface, mainly the unreal atmosphere of a Swedish midsummer eve, Julie'S physical condition, the fact that her engagement had just been broken off, and the additional fact that her father happened to be away from home. Strindberg traces deliberately the lives of his main characters, even to the extent of holding up the action at a crucial moment to allow Julie to give an account of her childhood. We see how the characters have become what they are because of their parents and their upbringing, and since they were obviously powerless to control the past, there is no suggestion of blame or of moral judgment. 1 Par Lagerkvist, Modern teater (1918). Translation taken from The Tulane Drama Review, VI (Winter, 1961), 20. 126 1964 STRIND:I3~RG AND L,AGE~KVIST Cl,lrrent scientific theories can be tr~ce~ thrOJ.~ghout the play! Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest is echoed in Jeall's final victory over the aristocrat's decadent daughter, and the respective rising and falling of the two main characters is emphasized in the dreams which they both relate. The power of suggestion also plays a consi(ierable part throughout the play, culminating in the final scene where Jean, th€! stronger charac.:ter, sends Julie Ol,lt to die by her own hand. The play possibly contains material from Strindberg's own life; his autobiographical work, Tjiinstekvinnans son (The Son of a Servant ), shows clearly how vexed he found the whole social and psych~ logical problem of the ruling and the serving classes, and it is easy to find a resemblance between Johan of the autobiography and Jean, the servant in the play. Julie might well be a reflection too of Strindberg 's first wife, the aristocratic Siri von Essen. But the autobiograph-:ical element is unimportant. Strindberg has approached the characters objectively and has illuminated different aspects of their natures without obviously taking sides. The three unities have been observed scrupulously, and both the setting and the action are presented realistically, so that the audience sees food being prepared and eaten, Kristin making her toilet, and so on. The dialogue is also realistic and wholly free from lyrical passages of poetic embellishments. Here, then, is surely evidence that Lagerkvist was justified in stating that Strindberg had contributed to the repertoire of naturalistic drama. And yet even some of Strindberg's most acknowledged contributions to this drama contain elements which are divorced from the usual conception of naturalism and point towards something new. Strindberg himself must have considered Fadren, written in 1887, a naturalistic drama, for he sent a copy of it to Zola for approval. After reading...

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