ABSTRACT
Strindberg’s work of the late 1880s and early 1890s signals fundamental societal changes of his time. In the essay ‘On Modern Drama and Modern Theatre’ (1890), the playwright offers his views on the ‘new Naturalistic drama’ where ‘the action focuses upon life’s two poles, life and death, … all those struggles, with their battlefields, cries of pain, the wounded and dead, during which one heard the new view of life as a continuous struggle’ (Strindberg 1996: 83–84). This statement sheds light on Strindberg’s endeavour in this phase of his career to dramatise the psychological struggles of contemporary characters caught up in a Darwinian battle for the survival of the fittest, with a series of plays including Comrades (1886–87), The Father (1887), Miss Julie (1888), and Creditors (1888). He continued to explore naturalistic themes and experiment with new dramaturgical solutions in a series of one-acters including The Stronger (1888–89), Pariah (1889), Simoom (1889), The First Warning (1892), Debit and Credit (1892), Facing Death (1892), Motherly Love (1892), Playing with Fire (1892), and The Bond (1892). Each of these plays deals with what Strindberg believed were the central questions of his time: the apparent shifting of class and gender-roles, sexual and psychological warfare, and the dissolution of traditional notions of identity and family.
