August Strindbergs A Dream Play Essay - 1374 Words

August Strindbergs A Dream Play August Strindberg wrote A Dream Play in 1901, a time in which women had few rights and a long road yet to travel in the fight to acquire equal rights with men. Given that Strindberg himself was a notorious misogynist, it is interesting to analyze the presentation and evolution of A Dream Play’s principle character: Indra’s Daughter. She travels from â€Å"the second world [and into] the third† (147, 17) by accident, but enters with optimism and faith in finding happiness in the human world. As she ventures further and further into the realm of human experience, not only does she not find happiness, but she finds that the tenacious desperation of humans is contagious, and that they have brought her to†¦show more content†¦This seems, however, to be less of an intentionally sexist set-up than a necessary plot element. Indra’s Daughter could just have easily been Indra’s Son, but the plot wouldn’t make sense if the voyager into our world had as negative a pre-conceived notion of it as Indra. The Daughter’s first approach is to take the suffering of the world upon herself, actively seeking it out and studying it. She is child-like; innocent and unaware of the possibility of changing as a consequence of learning how joyless this world Strindberg has created is. An exchange between her and the Officer embodies her initial feelings towards humans: DAUGHTER: What do you see in me? OFFICER: Beauty personified, the harmony of the universe. There are curves and lines in your form and features that can’t be found anywhere else except in the orbits or the planets, in the strings that vibrate with music, in the trembling pulsations of the light†¦ You’ve come from heaven. DAUGHTER: So have you. (148, 140-146) Her struggle to understand why humans inevitably feel, regardless of their situation or station in life, as though life has been unfair toShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Chekhov s Miss Julie 1215 Words   |  5 PagesZola, Anton Chekhov, and August Strindberg, illustrate in their plays this illusion of reality on stage. Director and practitioner, Konstantin Stanislavski, created a method where actors achieved naturalistic performances. Moreover, the key features seen in Naturalism theatre is the determinism of the environment, the actors portrayal of the characters and the concept of happiness. Both of this concepts can be seen in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters and August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. DeterminismRead MoreMiss Julie and Swedish Culture1942 Words   |  8 PagesMiss Julie and Swedish Culture The play Miss Julie by August Strindberg is set in Sweden in the late 1800’s on the count’s estate. 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