"""She had received a most beautiful doll as a present." "Oh, what a glorious doll, so fair and delicate." "She did not seem created for the sorrows of this world.""" "Mommy." "Mommy." "Diana." "Took the baron to the train." "Funny, Miss Julie isn"t going with him." "I mean, all their friends are celebrating Midsummer together, big event." "Left me his boots to polish." "Changed into something more fancy," "His Fanciness," "His Most Divine Fanciness," "His Vainglorious, Most Elegant Highness." "Sir Boots, I think." "So the baron went into the station and told me to wait, said he"d have something for me." "When I see him come out of the station, he was putting something in a folder." "Guess what was in the folder." "A packet of travel brochures." "Like that"s how someone like me travels." "But no money, no." "They don"t think that way, not those people." "No, they don"t think that way." "And then I leave and I"m carrying his boots and I pass the barn and ask the stable boy to take the horses home and I go in." "And there I see Miss Julie leading the dance with the gamekeeper the gamekeeper." "And what do you know?" "She sees me and she rushes over to me, Kathleen, and commands me, Kathleen-- commands me to dance with her." "She thinks she can control everyone." "Who am I?" "I can"t control anything." "Oh, Kathleen, come and look at these pictures." "Look, Paris." "Rome." "This is Lake Como." "Oh, I know about that place." "Lord, it"s lovely." "I"m hungry." "It"s kidney, your favorite." "Delightful." "Yes, you are right." "This is my big dlice." "You should have warmed my plate." "You"re harder to please than the baron himself." "Get me a glass." "A proper one, a fancy one." "When one is drinking bon vin..." "Oh." "It"s good." "It"s pretty good." "It"s a tiny bit too cold." "What are you cooking with that infernal smell?" "Oh, just some devil the young lady has me making up for the dog." "Miss Julie thinks it's pregnant again, because she"s been, ah, you know, close to the gamekeeper"s dog." "Miss Julie told me she watched them and it made her sick." "And now she"d rather risk the dog die from the remedy than have a mixed breed." "God save her." "You should have seen her coming to the dance." "Looked like she"d been lying on the ground having a nap." "We wouldn"t act in that way." "But still, she"s elegant" "Miss Julie-- magnificent." "Oh, her waist, her neck." "Stop it." "I"ve heard Clara talking." "She"s seen her naked" "lots of times when she gives her a bath" "Oh, Clara-- too cross-eyed to get anything right." "You women, you"re always jealous of each other." "Listen, I, who have been out riding with her" "I know her well enough-- the way she sits a horse, her legs, and then the way she dances." "Well, is it done-- my abortive poison?" "Is it some kind of witches" broth you ladies are cooking on Midsummer Eve, huh?" "Listen." "Come, dance with me again." "I don"t want to be impolite, but I have promised to dance with Kathleen." "Let me borrow him, Kathleen." "You go and rest." "If Miss Julie is so gracious, it isn"t for him to say no." "Go along, John." "Be thankful for the honor." "Frankly speaking, but not wishing to offend in any way," "I cannot help wondering if it's wise for Miss Julie to dance twice with the same partner." "What are you talking about?" "I, the mistress of the house, honor the workers" dance, in the barn, with my presence." "Since I really want to dance," "I have to dance with someone who knows the steps, so I don"t look ridiculous." "As you command, Miss Julie." "I am at your service." "I have chosen to forget all rank, and so must you." "Come, give me your arm." "Thank you, John." "I really don"t want to treat you as an inferior." "Let us go through the entrance hall." "You would like that, wouldn"t you?" "Don"t be afraid, Kathleen." "I won"t run away with your fianc." "That"s what he is, isn"t he?" "You"re a man of the future, aren"t you?" "Diana, come here." "Come on." "My love, come here." "Come here." "Poor you." "I know." "I did not put very much in your food." "It"s mostly good meat." "You"ll be fine." "Shh." "Listen." "You like it?" "You stay here." "I left her." "She"s strange, Kathleen." "She"s always strange." "Are you upset with me?" "Why?" "For small things like the two of you walking off?" "You are a sensible girl," "Kathleen." "You"ll make a good wife." "Can you imagine what the baron would say if he saw her behavior?" "Huh?" "Did you see her?" "See her?" "Is it possible?" "Are you flattered?" "Don"t be another dog, will you?" "You are such a charming cavalier, running away from a lady." "As you can see," "I hurried back to be with the lady I had deserted." "Why are you wearing your livery on Midsummer Night?" "Remove it at once." "Then I must ask if I can go to my room." "My black coat is hanging there." "Go to your room then." "And I will go too, and make sure you don"t run away from me again." "Miss Julie, with your permission, may I go and get it?" "Kathleen, are you and John engaged?" "Engaged?" "You seem so familiar." "In a way." "We call it that." "You call it that?" "Were you not engaged yourself, Miss Julie?" "Miss Julie," "I am tired." "Would you mind if I go to my room and--?" "Where did you learn to speak French?" "In Switzerland." "I was the wine waiter at the one of the biggest hotels in Lucerne." "You look like a perfect gentleman." "Charmant." "You flatter me." "Why would I flatter you?" "Oh, well, my natural modesty forbids me to believe that you would give someone like me such genuine compliments, and so I dare to assume that you were flattering me, or worse, patronizing me." "Where did you learn to talk like that?" "You"d be surprised to know the places I have visited." "But you were born in this area, weren"t you?" "Aye." "My father worked the land right across the way." "And I visited your garden" "long before I came to work for the baron." "I saw you when you were a little girl." "But you, Miss Julie, did not notice me." "Who gave you permission to walk in our garden?" "I remember one time" "No." "I"m not going to tell you." "Is it bad?" "It isn't." "But Kathleen might hear me." "From her room?" "I think she"s snoring." "She doesn"t." "But she talks in her sleep." "How would you know?" "Why don"t you sit down?" "It wouldn't be proper in front of Miss Julie." "And if I order you to do it?" "I"ll obey." "Get me something to drink." "I"m not sure what we have in the icebox." "I believe it"s only beer." "My taste is simple." "I want beer." "Miss Julie." "Thank you." "Are you not going to drink?" "I don"t like beer, but of course if you order me..." "I thought a polite gentleman should keep his lady company." "A point well taken." "Toast me." "Are you bashful?" "To your health, Miss Julie." "Bravo." "Now kiss my shoe, to get it just right." "Excellent." "You should have been an actor." "This won't do." "Miss Julie, somebody might see us." "What would that matter?" "They would start talking." "Miss Julie should have heard how their tongues were wagging when we danced." "What were they saying?" "Sit down." "Tell me." "Ah, you know." "You"re not a child." "When one sees a lady drinking alone with a man-- a servant in the night-- then" "We"re not alone." "We have Kathleen." "Let"s go and get her." "Leave her!" "What?" "You shouldn"t bother those who are resting." "She"s been working all day, standing over the stove, even cooking for your dog." "She"s earned a rest." "How nice you are." "Shall we go and pick some lilacs?" "I can't do that." "Absolutely not." "I order you." "Go." "I"m sorry, Miss Julie." "She was sick with the broth you asked me to give her." "And I hardly gave her any." "I mean, it could have killed her." "I like to take her out in the sunshine." "She loves to run around in circles in the grass." "And then she drops down on the warm stone steps and spreads out with the sun on her back." "I see." "You may keep her." "It's John's." "Take the rest." "I sent him out to pick flowers for me" "Iilacs." "Miss Julie," "I am tired." "And if you don"t need me anymore, may I go to sleep?" "Why wouldn"t you go out to the garden with me?" "I don"t understand what you"re scared of." "My father isn"t even home." "And the other people-- they are hired to work here like you." "Do you think they would believe that I"m in love with a valet?" "Such things happen." "It may be." "What an imagination." "I could step down." "Don't step down, Miss Julie." "They will say you fell." "You are strange." "So are you." "Life is strange, people-- everything." "We"re just foam floating on water until we sink." "Sometimes I dream that I"m on top of a column and I can"t get down." "I"m almost fainting when I look down, but I must get down." "I"m so scared to fall." "I can no longer hold on and I long to fall." "But I don't fall." "Yet there"s no peace, no rest till I come down." "I would be descending." "I would fall." "And if I reach the ground, I want to go further down." "Deep into the earth itself." "Did you ever feel this?" "No, no, l" "I dream that I am lying under a tall tree in a dark forest and..." "I want to go up, up to the top, and look around at the bright landscape where the sun is shining and so I can rob the nest in which lies the golden eggs." "And I climb and climb." "But the trunk is so thick and so slippery, and it is so far to the first branch." "But I know that if I can only reach that first branch, then I would easily reach the top." "I haven"t reached it yet-- that first branch-- but I will, if it only be in my dreams." "Are you ever afraid to hear that you"re no longer wanted?" "That you don"t belong?" "I shared a bed with my little brother, and one morning when I was eight" "I woke up and found him dead beside me." "I saw death for the first time and, yes, I was afraid, but not in the way you"re talking about." "I mean, my wee brother, his open coffin-- frost was creeping into my backbone then." "It"s always there." "It"s in me." "I will never go back to what I was born into, where I used to belong." "Come, come, let us pick nine Midsummer flowers and put them under our pillows, Miss Julie, and all our dreams will come true." "Let me see what you"ve got in your eye." "Oh, it"s nothing." "It"s just a bit of dirt." "It"ll be gone in a minute." "Sit down." "Sit still." "My," "I think you"re shaking." "Careful." "Sit still." "Yes." "Now it"s gone." "Kiss my hand and say thank you." "Miss Julie, listen to me." "Kathleen is close by." "Kiss my hand first." "Listen to me." "Kiss my hand first." "Blame yourself then." "For what?" "For what?" "Are you a child?" "You"re playing with fire." "l"m not." "I"m dreaming." "No, you"re not." "Shame." "I said shame on you, John." "You meant that?" "Yes, I meant it." "I am tired of this game." "And I ask to be excused in order to resume my work." "The baron will return in the morning, and he"ll want his boots polished." "Stop!" "I forbid you." "Put away the boots." "It is my duty, which I am bound to do." "He is a good master." "And I"m not expected to serve as your playmate." "Then shine my shoes first." "Why, you"re proud." "In some ways, not in others." "Pour us a drink, a strong one, a Midsummer Night one." "I will empty the glass in one swallow." "Thank you, John." "How nice of you." "Have you ever been in love?" "We don"t use that word." "But I have liked a lot of girls." "And once when I could not have one girl I wanted," "I became sick, horribly sick, sick like a prince in a fairy tale, a prince who cannot eat or drink because of love." "Who was it?" "It was you." "Do you know what the world looks like from my place?" "No, you don"t." "Your lot are like hawks." "You"re like falcons, always floating about high in the sky." "And their backs are rarely seen," ""cause they just glide along, right up there." "Come." "Come with me." "See?" "It"s as if you have your own secret world." "Tell me about your home." "It must be a boundless misfortune to be poor." "Oh, Miss Julie, a dog can lie on a countess"s sofa." "A horse may have its muzzle stroked by a young lady"s hand." "But a servant boy" "Ah, well." "My home-- it is a shack far out there in the gray wasteland where there isn"t even a single tree." "And you can"t see it from here even if you climb to the top." "It's hidden." "Sometimes, as a boy," "I was drawn to see your castle, your gardens." "And when I came close enough, I could see the wall around your park." "In the evenings I would creep to the wall and climb up to see your home-- oh, far more magnificent than the church." "I had never been inside of it, never, but no matter where my thoughts went later in life, they would return always to that place-- me sitting on the wall, shaded by trees and covered by honeysuckle," "watching the people coming and going," "like they were kings and emperors, and I knew that world would never be mine." "And then one day" "I caught sight of a pink dress and a pair of white stockings." "I saw you walking among the roses." "Yes." "I fell in love." "Oh, I wanted to talk to you." "I" " I wanted to... touch you." "And I thought, if it is true that a robber can enter the Kingdom of Heaven and be with the angels, then why can"t a peasant like me be in the baron"s garden and just play with his daughter?" "The next Sunday, I washed myself with soap and hot water and put on my best clothes and went to church, where I could see you again." "I did see you." "Yes, Miss Julie, I did see you and went home determined to die." "But I wanted to die beautifully and peacefully, without any pain." "And then I recalled that it was deadly to sleep under an elder bush." "And I knew of a big one, in full bloom." "I picked all of its flowers and made a bed in the big box where we keep the oats." "I laid down and pulled the lid down over myself, closed my eyes." "I fell asleep on the poisonous elders and I woke up a very sick boy." "But I didn"t die, as you can see." "And I knew that I could never have you." "You"re everything I can never have." "You speak like" "like what I find in my books." "Did you ever go to school?" "Not much, no, but I have read a lot and gone to the theatre and have listened to the conversation of better-class people." "I even try to speak like them." "You stand around and listen to what we"re saying?" "Oh, yes." "And I have heard a lot when I was driving the carriage for you, Miss Julie, or rowing the boat for you-- you and your girlfriend." "What?" "Tell me." "It wouldn"t be easy to repeat." "I was surprised." "I couldn"t understand where you, Miss Julie, had learned such words." "I" "Perhaps there isn"t quite as much difference as they think between human beings and human beings." "May I ask permission to go to bed?" "Go to bed?" "On Midsummer"s Night?" "You said" "Dancing with the mob out there has no attraction for me." "Good night, Miss Julie." "Sleep well." "Get the boat and take me out on the lake." "I want to watch the sun." "Would that be wise?" "Are you afraid of your reputation?" "I don"t want to be made ridiculous." "And I don"t want to be discharged with no recommendation." "Maybe I even owe Kathleen something." "Oh, you"re afraid of Kathleen?" "Take my advice and go to bed." "Are you ordering me now?" "Yes, for once, and for your own sake." "The night is far gone." "You"ve been drinking." "You don"t know what you"re doing." "I hear the crowd coming this way to look for me." "I can"t be found here with you." "I love the people, and they like me." "Let them come, and you"ll see." "No, Miss Julie, they don"t like you." "They-- they take your food and your money and spit at your back." "Why?" "I never hurt them." "The mob is always cowardly." "They are false-hearted." "In such a situation there"s nothing to do but run away." "Let us run away." "Run away where?" "To my room?" "No, no, Miss Julie, to mine." "We"ll be safe there." "I"ll look after you." "Trust me, I will." "lf they will look for you in there?" "l"ll bolt the door." "And if they try to break it down?" "I'll shoot." "Come." "Come." "Do you promise me that--?" "Promise" "I promise." "Kathleen!" "Open the door, Kathleen!" "Kathleen?" "Will you open it?" "I don"t know who I am." "I don"t know who you are." "I don't either." "You don"t know who I am?" "Did you say that?" "No." "No what?" "Come over here." "Your hand in mine." "I did not tell you, that time I saw you in the garden," "I sat for hours on the wall, just looking at the house until the sun set." "And then l-- you may despise me now, but I did what I never had dared to do before." "I jumped down on the other side, hoping you"d come out again so that I could speak to you." "I don"t know what I was thinking." "I knew that I didn"t belong." "I was very scared, Miss Julie." "I knew who I was-- a boy who found his brother starved to death in the bed beside him, and my father telling me to never upset His Lordship, how good the baron had been to us." "I knew I had to get out of your garden." "It was forbidden to me and I would upset my father." "And then I saw someone coming." "It was the baron." "My heart was hammering." "I ran like mad afterwards, plunging through the raspberry bushes, thorns tearing at me." "You can"t imagine what it was like, with the thistles that stung my feet." "A week later I saw you again... walking among the roses in such deep thought and looking so lonely, even unhappy." "You did not see me." "Oh, I wish you had." "Please." "I beg you." "I am sorry." "I am sorry." "You don"t understand." "I am sorry." "Forgive me." "I cannot stay here any longer." "Please stay in the room until I make sure" "Kathleen won"t see you." "Kathleen, please." "Please, Kathleen." "Please stay here just for a little while." "Please stay in here." "There are things l-- I can"t control now." "I can't control her-- Miss Julie." "Don't." "Don"t talk, shh." "Wait." "I will talk." "I'll come back." "I will." "Stay in here now, Kathleen, for me, for us." "Try to sleep." "Please, you-- you need sleep." "Kathleen may have heard us." "I think she knows." "What shall we do?" "John, what are we to do?" "We?" "We." "We"ve been doing what everyone is doing." "It is Midsummer Night, Miss Julie." "Between midnight and dawn lovers are allowed to open their hearts and their loins." "Listen, we-- we could run away, travel far away from here." "Leave?" "Far away." "To Switzerland, the Italian lakes, Lake Como." "I"ve been there." "I even told you earlier." "Life has given us an answer." "It"s a miracle." "I even have a picture over here." "Look." "That's the life-- always new faces, never a moment to spare for worry and nerves, no need to wonder what to do with yourself, people dancing night and day, trains whistling, and all the time the jingle of gold coins." "That"s the life, Julie." "Oh, eternal summer, orange trees, laurels." "I"ll start a hotel, everything first-class." " l"ll have first-class customers." " A hotel?" "Yes!" "That"ll be our life." "You will be the pride of the place, what with your looks and your style, why, it"s a sure thing." "I"m telling you, you will never be lonely again." "I"ll take care of you." "I promise." "Freedom, no more walls and no gardens." "And you"ll sit there like a queen." "You"ll keep the slaves going by the touch of the bell." "And the guests will file past your throne, timidly leaving their offerings." "And you cannot imagine how the people will tremble when they"re holding out a bill, and you just sweeten them with your pretty smile." "And one day" "I will be as rich as your father." "I may even buy him out." "Tell me you love me." "Otherwise I am nothing." "Not now, not here." "And above all, it"s important-- no feelings." "Then everything will be lost." "Cold blood, clear heads, grown-up people." "Let us sit at the table, you there." "And I"ll sit here." "And we"ll just talk amongst ourselves as if nothing"s happened between us, making our plans." "Have you no feelings at all?" "I?" "No one is more full of feeling than I am." "A while ago you held me." "I" " I was in your bed." "Yes, that was then." "Now we have other things to think about." "Don"t speak harshly to me!" "We have made one mistake, a big one." "There"s no sense in making another." "Now the baron may be back at any moment, but before he comes, I need to know-- do you believe in me?" "How can we do all this?" "We have no money." "True enough." "I want you to be my partner." "I"ll need your money." "I have no money, not of my own." "I have nothing myself." "That's it then." "You think I"m going to stay in this house as your woman?" "Do you think I"ll let people point their fingers at me, laughing at me?" "Do you think I can ever look my father in the face after this?" " Oh, what have I done?" " Don"t try that one." "Turn off that fountain!" "Do you even know what love is?" "Me?" "I should say so!" "Do you think this is my first time?" "Oh, now you despise me." "Don"t pretend you"re nervous and don"t pretend you"re special." "We are the same now." "Look here, my little one." "Let me treat you to a glass of something super fine." "Where did you get this?" "In the cellar." "My father"s wine." "Well, isn"t it good enough for his son-in-law?" "Thief." "You going to tell on me?" "Yes, to the fools." "I'm so unhappy." "Why?" "Think of Kathleen." "I even had to forbid her to come to the kitchen now." "Don"t you think she has feelings?" "A servant is a servant." "And a whore is a whore!" "Oh my God, I"m so scared." "I"m in a dark hole and it"s like I"m sinking." "I"m sinking." "You are sick, young lady." "I do feel sorry for you." "When I was a little boy," "lying there in secret, looking at you in the garden and saw you walking among the roses and saw your slim white ankles, well, I tell you now," "I had the same nasty thoughts like all young boys." "You said you wanted to die for me." "It was a lie." "I had to think of something." "It"s the fancy talk that makes women open their legs." "Bastard!" "Make sure you don"t carry one." "So now you"ve seen the hawk"s back." "Not exactly its back." "Oh, how can a human soul be so filthy?" "Wash it off then." "You minion!" "Stand up when I speak to you!" "Stand up when I speak to you!" "Minion?" "Shut your mouth, lady whore!" "Shut up and get out of here!" "Telling me I am a minion!" "You have no right to be in here!" "You"re not needed!" "Kathleen doesn"t like your kind visiting her kitchen, especially you." "Do you think she would be so vulgar as you were this evening, throwing yourself on a man the way you did?" "Where do you think you are?" "In a zoo?" "In a whorehouse?" "No more." "Yes, I"m dirt." "I"m nothing." "I don"t belong." "I know." "But please, please help me, John." "I need to find a way out of this." "Please help me." "Help me find a way out of this." "I may be partly to blame, but do you think someone in my position would dare even to look at someone like you if you hadn"t asked for it, begged for it?" "Please." "I'm still amazed." "Though I must say the victory was far too easy to be really exciting." "Oh, no more." "I"m sorry I said that." "I don"t want to strike one who is unarmed." "Oh, I cannot deny that it has given me pleasure to discover that what has dazzled us below you was only gaudiness, that there is powder under tender cheek, that there is grime under your dirty nails," "that your perfumed handkerchief is dirty, Julie." "Oh, it hurts me to realize that what I yearned to reach is so far from genuine." "It"s nothing." "It"s worthless." "I"m sorry you"ve sunk so low, Julie, far lower than your own cook." "It hurts like watching the last flowers of autumn hanging their heads, already faded or torn to shreds by the rain and turned into muck." "You talk as if you are already above me." "I am bred by a baron." "You can never achieve that." "Aye, that"s true." "But I can provide a baron, with your help." "You"re a thief." "I"m not." "There are worse things than being a thief, much worse." "Anyway, think about it:." "I am serving in a household and I look upon myself as one of the family, as a child of the house." "And it isn"t regarded as stealing if a child picks a berry from a large bunch." "Shh, shh, Miss Julie." "Miss Julie." "Shh." "Miss Julie, you are a wonderful woman, and you"re far too good for one like me." "You"ve been drinking." "You lost your head." "And now you"re trying to cover up your mistake by telling yourself that you love me." "Well, you don"t." "Unless my looks may have tempted you." "And maybe there was a physical attraction." "But that makes your love no better than mine." "I could be your pet, like your dog that you give affection when it suits you, but that"s not enough for me." "I can never make you love me." "Are you so sure?" "Are you meaning to say that it might be possible?" "Oh." "And that I could fall in love with you?" "Oh." "Oh, aye." "Well..." "Aye." "Yes, I could." "You are beautiful." "You are refined." "Oh, I love that in a woman." "You are educated." "We could read together, all the great writers." "We could discuss them." "Oh, you-- the fire you ignite in a man isn"t likely to go out." "You are like hot spices with one of your kisses." "Leave me alone." "You"re disgusting," "like a rat." "I hate you." "Run away with me then." "Yes, we"ll run away." "Are you my friend?" "I am at times." "But don"t rely on me." "I need you to understand me, to see me." "Don"t give me the secrets of your life." "You"ll regret it." "You sound like my mother." "Oh, she was so beautiful." "Look at this picture of her." "She didn"t want to be a mother." "She would smile at me but didn"t mean it." "Sometimes when I think of her, my mouth smiles." "But I do not smile within me." "Don't drink more." "It's as if" "I am cut off from everything that"s life." "Inside me, within me-- nothing." "A black hole." "She taught me to mistrust and to hate all men." "And I promised her-- this little girl of 10-- that I would never, never be a slave to any man." "I didn"t even understand what it meant." "Then you hate me too." "Yes." "I"d like to shoot you like a dog." "No qualms?" "No qualms." "But you have nothing to shoot me with." "And I"m no dog." "I"ll take you up to my room... and then I"ll put you in my birdcage." "Most of all, I"d like to die." "Die?" "How silly." "On the shores of Lake Como, you said, the sun always shines." "Look at the wall out there." "It"s all you can see from down here." "You can only feel the light of the sun." "And you can only hear the wind." "On the other side of that wall," "I have a place, a secret garden." "There's no wind there." "I go there when I"m anxious." "I"m anxious all the time." "I"m always longing for some other place." "You cannot imagine how different" "I wanted my life to be." "When I was little, just after Mama died," "I was hoping that all of my garden would be full of animals." "They"d come from" "I don"t know where they"d come from." "They"d be there to keep watch over me." "I have a pit in my stomach." "I do not know where my sorrow comes from." "And now you." "You and me-- yes, we must leave." "To make life hell for each other?" "No." "To be happy, smile on the inside." "Enjoy ourselves a few years, as long as we can." "And then... to die." "Would you die with me?" "I won't die at all." "I enjoy life." "You refuse to die with me?" "I"m sorry, Miss Julie." "I"ll talk no more." "I"m going to bed." "You-- you dishonored me." "You owe me something." "There." "Thank you." "This is what I get for opening my heart to you, for giving away my family honor?" "I told you not to." "You-- you forced me." "You were the seducer." "We can get-- we can get married." "And then we can divorce." "I won"t demean myself." "Demean?" "Yes, demean." "Oh, how I wish it undone." "How I wish it" "I told you." "Oh, if only you loved me." "I told you you should not drink, because then you talk." "You shouldn"t talk." "A butterfly dies in the act of love." "I wish I did too." "What do you want?" "Am I to cry with you again?" "What--?" "Do you want me to kiss your feet again?" "What?" "I"ve had enough, Miss Julie." "I-- this is painful." "Miss Julie, Miss Julie," "I see that you"re unhappy." "Yes, you are suffering, but..." "I don"t understand what you"re saying." "I mean, my people-- we don"t carry on like you do." "We don"t hate and destroy each other." "We make love for fun." "Yes, it is a game, and we play it when we get time off from work." "But we don"t have all day and all night" "like you people do." "You know what?" "I think you"re ill." "Yes, I"m sure you"re ill." "Be kind to me, John." "Talk to me like a human being." "Well, then be a human being yourself." "You think you can spit on me, but won"t let me wipe it off on you?" "Help me then." "Tell me what I should do." "Lord, if only I knew that myself." "I" " I know" "I-- l"ve been acting wild, as-- as if I"m mad." "I know." "But now what do I do?" "Stay here and keep quiet." "Nobody knows." "I" " I can"t stay here." "Everyone knows." "They don"t know, and they would never believe it." "But suppose there are consequences." "Consequences?" "Then there"s only one thing to do-- you must disappear." "You must leave at once." "I can"t go with you." "Then they would know." "You must go alone." "Alone?" "Where?" "I can"t do that." "You must, and before the baron gets back." "If you stay, you know what will happen." "Later you will write to your father, tell him how unhappy you are." "He loves you." "He will take care of it." "He"ll never guess it was me." "I don"t think he"d be anxious to find out." "l"ll go if you come with me." "Are you stark mad?" "Miss Julie is running away with a-- a servant?" "It would be in the papers." "And, Miss Julie, the baron will never survive." "I'm so tired." "I"m so tremendously tired." "Order me." "I must be told." "I can no longer think." "I can't move." "Do you see now what helpless creatures you people are?" "Why are your kind strutting about with your noses in the air," "like you were the lords of creation?" "Well, I"ll tell you what to do." "I"ll order you." "Go to your father"s library." "In his drawer there is money." "Get the money." "Come up with me." "Go." "Get up there." "Speak kindly to me." "Orders always sound unkind." "Now you know what it feels like." "Go." "Am I allowed to leave my room now?" "You look a mess." "May God forgive you." "What have you been doing?" "You are my woman." "But the night is long, Kathleen." "All the wine-- my head wasn"t with me." "It was swimming." "I asked what you have been doing." "I have such pain, Kathleen." "Let us hold around each other." "No." "No." "I have this ready for you." "For church." "Oh, you-- you always have my things." "Yes." "Thank you." "Thank you." "You promised me you"d come with me this morning." "Oh, yes." "I remember now." "And here you are with my finery." "Yes." "Come on with it then." "What"s the text today?" "The beheading of John the Baptist." "Ah." "Oh, you"re-- you"re choking me." "Oh God, I"m so tired." "So tired." "I'm exhausted." "So why did you stay up all night then?" "Hmm?" "Have you seen your face?" "Miss Julie." "She would never leave me." "Stop it." "And she-- she who doesn"t know what"s decent, she doesn"t." "She talked." "She needed to talk." "You know the way I am." "I"m always placing a veil over people, idealizing them." "So I never see who they really are." "I did that with her-- Miss Julie-- and I was bound to be disappointed." "We are all forced to face ourselves as less than we"d hoped to be." "Isn"t it funny anyhow, when you come to think of it, her?" "What is funny?" "Everything." "Look at me straight in the eye." "Yes." "Is it possible?" "Is it possible?" "Yes." "It is." "It's awful." "I could scratch your eyes out." "Yes, that"s the way I feel about it." "It"s nasty." "It"s simply disgusting." "You"re angry with her then?" "No, I"m angry with you!" "It was a rotten thing to do, really rotten." "Poor young woman." "I won"t stay in a house where you can"t have respect for your employers." "Are you jealous of her?" "No, not of her." "If it had been Clara or Sophie, then yes, I would have been." "No, I will not work in a house where people can"t behave decently." "Would you?" "You just dragged yourself down in the dirt by doing it." "Get out of here!" "Get out!" "Get out of here!" "Why should you respect them?" "You don"t know?" "You, who think you are such a smart fellow?" "You don"t know?" "All it shows is that they are not a bit better than we are." "If they are not any better than us, then there is nothing to inspire us to become better ourselves." "And did you ever think of the baron?" "Just think of all the sorrows he"s had in his time." "Listen, Jesus, I won"t stay here any longer and have to face him." "And then with someone like you." "I can"t imagine why she did it with someone like you." "If it had at least been with a man of her own people- if it had been with a better man." "What are you saying?" "She, who wanted to give her dog poison because it ran after the gamekeeper"s mongrel." "What?" "Listen." "You"re fine for what you are, but there is a difference." "Class is class." "Well, let me tell you," "I won"t stay here any longer." "On the 114th of October we are leaving." "Yes, that"s right." "You"re coming too." "You can get a job as a janitor, or maybe a messenger in some government office." "It may not pay you as well as the baron, but it will be secure." "And then your widow and children will get a pension." "I"m going to plan my death so you will get a pension?" "I"m sorry, I have better prospects than that in mind." "Who"s that walking around up there?" "Can it be the baron?" "Already?" "Listen." "If I leave," "I"ll never get another job like this." "And you-- why should you go?" "You"ve never seen much of the world anyway." "I" " I don"t know why you would go." "When the baron leaves on the 114th of October, then we are leaving too." "It"s been some years now, you and me." "Don"t you forget your obligations." "Let's hope that the baron will never find out what happened here, in his servant"s room, this Midsummer Night." "Go and shave yourself." "You don"t want him to come home and see you looking like this." "I"ll take the dog out and I"ll come back." "And you and I will go to church and you will ask God to forgive you." "And I will ask Him to help us, all of us." "My God." "What a sight you look." "Why?" "How do I look?" "You"re white as a corpse." "The sun"s rising." "And the trolls are dancing." "Yes, they"ve been dancing all night." "I"ve got the money." "How much?" "I took all of it." "Please come with me." "I can"t go alone, not today." "On Midsummer Day, the trains will be packed." "I can"t-- I can"t go alone in the midst of the black and gray on the train, people looking at me as if they know." "Oh, it"s so beautiful out there." "The garden." "I never showed you my little brook, did I?" "I know you"d love it, all my flowers." "Miss Julie," "I am going with you, but it has to be right now, right away." "What"s that?" "Oh." "What is it?" "lt"s my canary." "Are you taking a cage along with us?" "I"m not leaving her behind." "Drop the cage." "It"s the only thing I"m taking with me from home." "Drop the cage, I"m telling you." "Kathleen will be here at any minute." "All right, listen." "You-- you will go out the main entry." "I will use the servants" entrance." "And we"ll meet outside the front gate." "L-l-let go of that bird." "Now." "Kathleen will take care of it." "No, my little bird." "He"s not taking you." "No." "The bird." "The bird." "Give it to me." "My little bird, he"s not taking you." "For God's sake." "Shut up." "Shut up." "Kill me too." "Kill me." "Killing an innocent creature without blinking an eye." "Oh, I hate and despise you." "There's blood between us." "I curse the moment I saw you." "I curse the day I was born." "Kill me too." "You think I can"t stand the sight of blood." "You think I"m weak." "Oh, I should like to see your blood, your brains lying there on the table, see your whole sex swimming in blood" "like my little bird." "You think I am weak!" "You think I love you because my womb cried out for your sperm." "You think I want to carry your brat under my heart, feed it with my blood and give it your name!" "You, what are you called anyhow?" "John, John and then?" "What is your family name?" "Maybe you don"t have one." "I would be Mrs. Lackey, Mrs. Shit-pile, you dog there wearing my collar, you minion wearing my crest." "Share you with Kathleen, share you with my own servant, parcel you out to all the other needy women working here." "You think I"m a coward and want to run away." "Oh, no!" "No, I"ll stay, and let the lightning strike." "My father is coming home." "He"ll find his desk broken into, his money gone." "Then he"ll ring that bell there twice for his lackey." "And he"ll send for the police." "And I"ll tell them everything-- everything." "Oh, it will be good to get an end to it." "And then my father will have a stroke and die." "And that will be the end of all of us." "And all will be quiet, peace, eternal rest." "The baron"s line will be wiped out and the lackey"s line will continue in an orphanage." "There spoke the royal blood." "Dragged up in the gutter, and dead in the jail." "Bravo, Miss Julie." "Make sure the lackey doesn"t lose his place." "What is going on?" "What a mess you"ve made." "You"re a woman, Kathleen." "You"re my friend." "You must understand me." "You must listen to me." "I don"t want to know anything from you, Miss Julie." "What"s going on?" "What?" "What?" "Kathleen, you have to understand me." "I don"t want to understand." "You must listen to me." "If you"re planning on getting John to go away with you, Miss Julie," "I will have to stop you, both of you." "Quiet, Kathleen, and listen to me." "I" " I can"t stay here." "And John-- he can"t stay here." "So we have to-- to get away." "What?" "Wait, I have an idea." "All three of us can go-- go together abroad to start a hotel." "I have-- I have money, see?" "And John and I will run the whole thing." "And-- and you can" "I think, can run the kitchen." "Oh, wouldn"t that be fine?" "Oh, please say yes, Kathleen." "Come along with us." "You have to get out and see the world." "You can"t imagine how fun it is to travel by train." "We just talked about it." "You"ll love it." "Trains whistling, carriages stopping, bells ringing upstairs, downstairs." "You"ll stand-- no, you"ll-- you"ll sit in the kitchen like a queen." "Of course." "You"re not going to stand at the stove yourself, naturally not, with all the fine clothes you"ll be wearing to greet the guests." "You"re so beautiful, Kathleen." "Yes." "I"m not flattering you." "You"ll find a husband, a rich Englishman." "They"re so easy to catch." "And we"ll be rich." "We"ll build a villa on Lake Como." "It rains there a little, a little, a little bit sometimes." "But the sun will be shining sometimes." "Though it looks dark." "And..." "Then" "Or... we can go home again, come back here or... somewhere else." "Do you believe in this yourself, Miss Julie?" "Do I believe it myself?" "Yes." "I don't know." "I don"t know anything anymore." "Nothing." "Nothing at all." "So you were going to elope?" "Elope?" "That"s a big word." "You heard the young lady." "And maybe she"s tired now from being up all night, but it"s a plan that could work." "Are you telling me" "I"d be the kitchen girl for her?" "Her?" "Will you please speak more refined when you"re talking in front of your mistress?" "Do you understand?" "My God." "Listen to you." "It would be better for you to listen a little more and talk a little less." "She is your mistress." "If you despise her for what she has done, you should despise yourself." "I have always respected myself." "And looked down on others." "And I have never done anything that is beneath me." "You could never say that the baron"s cook had lowered herself to be with the stable groom or the swineherd." "Quite so." "You had me." "And very lucky for you too." "Lucky?" "A man who steals from the baron?" "You shouldn"t be talking." "You, who can"t even respect your own mistress anymore." "John, are you coming with me to church?" "You could use a good sermon." "No." "I am not going to church today." "You go alone and confess your sins." "Yes." "I'll do that." "And I"ll bring back enough forgiveness for you too." "Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us." "And if we go to him with an open heart and all our sorrows, he will take our sins on himself." "You really believe that, Kathleen?" "I"ve believed it all my life, Miss Julie." "And that is why I stand here now with the faith of my childhood." "Where sin overflows, there grace overflows more." "Oh, if-- if only I had your faith." "It is not given to everyone, without God"s special favor." "Not everyone deserves it." "To whom does He give it?" "Only God knows that." "It is a work of grace, Miss Julie." "And God is no respecter of status, except the last shall be first." "So He helps the last then?" "And it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." "So you see, Miss Julie, it"s just the way it is." "Well..." "I am going alone." "And as I pass by the stableman," "I shall tell him not to let out the horses if someone should like to get away before the baron comes home." "Goodbye." "What would you do in my place?" "In your place?" "Let me see." "Well, as a lady, as a woman, after that kind of mistake, as one who has fallen..." "I don't know." "Yes." "I do know." "With this?" "Yes." "But I wouldn't do it." "I wouldn't." "Do you understand?" "There is a difference between us." "It"s the same difference as between a man and a woman." "This about a rich person not getting to heaven-- it"s a lie, isn"t it?" "The baron is back." "Kathleen." "What if Kathleen--?" "He's seen his desk." "Yes, it is John, Your Lordship." "Yes, Your Lordship." "Right away." "In half an hour, your lordship." "Yes, yes." "In half an hour." "He called for his boots." "Wants his coffee in half an hour." "Half an hour." "I'm exhausted." "I don"t know what to do." "To run, to stay," "live or die." "You know what I want to do, but I don't know how to do it." "Make me." "Order me." "I"ll obey you like a dog." "I can't." "I don"t know why." "I-- l-- it"s as if just wearing this jacket," "I cannot order you." "I-- l" " I heard the baron"s voice." "Now," "I can't explain it, but" "Oh, God, it"s that-- it"s that damn servant boy sitting on my back." "I-- l" " I do what I"m told." "I-- if he-- the baron came down here now and told me to cut my throat," "I"d do it on the spot." "Then pretend that you are him." "And pretend that I am you." "Did you ever see a magician at the theatre?" "The magician says," """You do everything I tell you,""" "and she does what she is told." "He says," """Take the broom,""" "and she takes it." "He says, ""Sweep,""" "and she sweeps." "I see silver and gold... and all the stars." "Just like when I went to sleep as a child." "I"m floating out of the window and up to the sky." "Such freedom, surrounded by sparkling crystal." "And the dark is no longer dark." "The whole room is warm and safe like an open fire." "It"s you." "And I am close to the fire." "How nice and warm it is." "And it is so quiet and so light." "Here is the broom." "Go to the barn." "Use it." "Go now, while it"s light." "Use the tunnel, so you don"t meet your father." "Thank you." "Tell me that the first can also receive the gift of grace." "Say it even if you don"t believe it." "The first?" "No, I can"t do that." "But wait." "Miss Julie, I know." "You no longer belong among the first." "Oh, you"re among the last." "I am one of the last." "Oh." "And the first shall be the last." "Don't speak." "Don't think." "Don't think." "Go, Miss Julie." "No other way." "Go." "Wait." "I"m sending you out into the world." "Look." "You"re like bright-colored stars." "The water is your heaven." "Do you know that, my flowers?" "Yes." "Everything is so much bigger than the little pieces." "Do you know that?"