Miss Julie

As Julie and Jean hide in Jean’s room, the servants and farm workers enter, led by a fiddler. They dance a ballet while drinking and singing. After they leave, Julie enters and looks at the mess in the kitchen; Jean follows behind her. Both of them are visibly agitated: It soon becomes clear that they had sex while hiding in Jean’s room.

Julie asks Jean what they should do now, and Jean tells her their only choice is to leave together before they are caught and shamed. Jean wants them to go to Switzerland and open a hotel. Julie, afraid and uncertain, asks Jean for reassurance and affection, but Jean’s attitude changes and he becomes increasingly cold, insistent, and dictatorial: He continues to address Julie formally as “Miss,” feeling that they cannot be equals as long as they are in the count’s house. As Jean urges action and practicality, Julie accuses Jean of being unfeeling. As Julie becomes more distraught, Jean begins mocking her and confesses that he was lying when he said that he had tried to die by suicide when he thought they could never be together. Julie denounces Jean as a lowly servant; Jean denounces Julie as a “whore.