Power struggles in “The Legend of Salome” and Strindberg’s Miss Julie.
This paper looks at the similarities between the Strindberg stories The Legend of Salome and Miss Julie. The author uses extensive quotes from both in an attempt to show the common threads. The author further quotes critics that have also compared and contrasted these two stories.
When there is an unequal balance of power in a relationship, there is bound to be conflict and attempts to either sustain or reverse the roles of power. This kind of imbalance can be analyzed in terms of the relationships of the major players in Strindberg’s play Miss Julie, and The Legend of Salome. Although Miss Julie is often analyzed in terms of the Bible, including images of the fall, the crucifixion of Christ, and scriptural analysis of exactly who goes to heaven, the most striking similarity between the play and the Bible is the legend of Salome.