Strindberg's Miss Julie and Beckett's Waiting for Godot

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Recommended: Introduction to Transactional Analysis

Strindberg's Miss Julie and Beckett's Waiting for Godot

The motivations and behavior of key characters in Strindberg's Miss Julie and Beckett's Waiting for Godot will be analyzed according to Eric Berne's method of transactional analysis. Eric Berne deals with the psychology behind our transactions. Transactional analysis determines which ego state is implemented by the people interacting. There are three possibilities which are either parent, adult, or child. The key characters in Waiting for Godot are Vladimir and Estragon. Vladimir is the more intellectual of the two and Estragon is more emotional. Their ego states are always shifting from minute to minute. In Miss Julie the key characters are Jean and Miss Julie. Jean shifts his ego state according to his situation either to compliment the ego state of the person he is talking to or to exploit the situation. In the relationship between Miss Julie and Jean their ego states interchange as Miss Julie begins as the parent, then she falls so they are equal on the adult level and eventually she is on the bottom so Jean is on the top as parent ego state.

People are made with three basic ego states which are the parent, adult, and child. Some people have a dominant ego state and others are constantly changing. All parts are necessary for a well rounded personality. The child is linked with intuition, creativity, spontaneity, drive and enjoyment. The adult is the rational, objective and logical side which allows work to get done. This is the part of us that should be involved in difficult decision making because it weighs the pros and cons of the decision without bias. The parent is useful for actually raising children and for routine decisions that do not require the deductive rea...

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...llowed to flow. He also manipulates Miss Julie's emotions by appealing to the romantic child in her. It is Miss Julie's fall from her high social status and her consequent fall to a childish ego state that makes Jean adapt his ego. She starts out thinking she is better than Jean because he is her servant. As they get closer she feels he is her equal so she talks to him as an adult from an adult standpoint. By the end when she has fallen from grace she feels so low that she is talking up to Jean and wants him to tell her what to do. All the while Jean is on the opposite side of the wheel that Miss Julie is on.

Bibliography

1. Berne, Eric. Games People Play. Grove Press INC, New York Thirtieth printing 1966.

2. Strindberg, August. Plays: One , Miss Julie . Secer & Warberg Limited, Great Britain 1964.

3. Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. Grove Press INC 1956.

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