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54 Strindberg
The woman in Julie pursues the male, follows
him into the kitchen, plays with him as with a pet
dog, and then feigns indignation when Jean,
aroused, makes advances. How dare he, the
servant, the lackey, even insinuate that she would
have him!
"
I, the lady of the house! I honor
the people with my presence. I, in love with my
coachman? I, who step down."
How well Strindberg knows the psychology of
the upper classes ! How well he understands that
their graciousness, their charity, their interest in
the
"
common people
"
is, after all, nothing but
arrogance, blind conceit of their own importance
and ignorance of the character of the people.
Even though Jean is a servant, he has his pride,
lie has his dreams.
"
I was not hired to be your
plaything," he says to Julie;
"
I think too much
of myself for that."
Strange, is it not, that those who serve and
drudge for others, should think so much of them
selves as to refuse to be played with? Stranger
still that they should indulge in dreams. Jean
says:
Do you know how people in high life look from the
under-world? . . .
They look like hawks and eagles
whose backs one seldom sees, for they soar up above. I
lived in a hovel provided by the State, with seven brothers
and sisters and a pig ; out on a barren stretch where noth
ing grew, not even a tree, but from the window I could
see the Count s park walls with apple trees rising above
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