The Life and Work of August Strindberg
“What is life and what is its meaning?” August Strindberg asked
this question many times throughout his life. He questions human
existence, good and evil, happiness and sorrow, from the beginning of
mans life until the end, in every thing he writes. He wrote novels,
plays, poetry and over 7,000 letters. The collected works consists of 55
volumes. Strindberg was known best for his expressionist plays that he
had made throughout his life.
August Strindberg was born in Stockholm in 1849. Before he became
a writer he studied at Uppsala university and worked as a librarian and
a journalist. In 1877 he married Siri Von Essen with whom he had three
children, Karin, Greta and the son Hans. After twelve years they divorce
and Strindberg, not feeling appreciated in Sweden, moves to central
Europe. After a couple of years of "artist life" with people like and
he marries the young Austrian Frieda Uhl . After a stormy year
travelling in Europe they divorce. Then for his third marriage Harriet
Bosse became his wife. But that marriage also ended in divorce.
Historian’s say that the reason his plays are expressionistic is that
most of them model his experiences in life.
Strindberg was thought to be one of the greatest within world
literature. He was the gentleman, a man of the world, who was polite and
friendly and knew how to behave in literary circles and other important
occasions. But he could also turn his back on the world, when something
happened in his life and he detested everything and everybody.
Strindberg's early works were mostly novels and plays they are strongly
naturalistic. They were written in to go against the widespread
romanticism that was in Swedish literature. Strindberg was an known as
“the godfather” of naturalist drama. He was so far ahead of his time
that he never really enjoyed the success that his talents deserved.
People back then could not truly appreciate his writings, so therefore
he could not truly appreciate his success.
At first his plays were too realistic, and the effects of those
plays were much too weak. Soon he decided to be more expressionist in
his plays. Those expressionistic plays came in two parts. First in
1914 to 1915 then from 1919 to 1922. These plays were more successful
then his realistic plays were. Strindberg kept writing throughout his
life, but eventually died of stomach cancer in May of 1912.
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Strindberg added the prologue of the play in 1906, prior to the first production of A Dream Play in 1907. It introduces the characters of Indra and his Daughter in a context that help to explain the consequent action of the play – it is made clear that Indra is a God, and we are shown how his Daughter falls into the lower world. She lacks any knowledge of this world, and in being completel...
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