Religion to skepticism:

In his early life, Strindberg went through a fast-paced shift in ideologies. In his transition from childhood to adulthood, he moved from religion to skepticism. He read and memorized the bible in different languages. He even considered becoming a priest. A year after he preached his first sermon in a church, Strindberg led a class in rebelling against classroom religion the following year. Up until then, he had sustained a chaste love for her father’s servant, Elda who was much older himself. But later that year, he slept with a girl in rebellion against religion.

Drama Style

Early in his career, Strindberg experimented with many styles of writing. Since he wrote prose, drama, poetry, and essays altogether, his style was fluid. Nevertheless, his urge to provoke readers and audiences with edginess remained constant across his styles. In 1889, Strindberg was done with Naturalism. He published an essay ‘On Modern Drama and the Modern Theatre’, in which he declared naturalism as insignificant and a banal reality. This was after his ‘Inferno Crisis’. He also shed his Darwinist scientific outlook that had previously shaped his art but kept insights he had borrowed from his extensive readings on psychology.  He turned to an expressionist style of writing that embraced a certain level of theatricality absent in naturalism.

 

Radicalism: The Avant-garde Artist

In a letter in response to an invitation to write for Stockholm based newspaper, Strindberg wrote,

“I’m a socialist, a nihilist, a republican, anything that is opposed to the reactionaries! And from instinct, for I’m Jean-Jacques’ intime where a return to Nature is concerned: I’d like to join in turning everything upside down in order to see what lies at the bottom; I believe we are now in such a state, so dreadfully regulated, that things can’t be straightened out, it must all be burned down and blown up, so we can start afresh!” (Strindberg, Strindberg’s Letters 77)

Though Strindberg’s work preceded the Avant Garde movement, his works laid the foundations, or at least followed similar concepts, for later avant-garde artistic movement. In the letter, he calls for the complete remake of theatre at his time. His innovative techniques developed in his post-Inferno drama works reveal a level of aesthetic radicalism, the form of which subsequent radical and avant-garde artists will come to be known for. Strindberg, as several avant-garde artists later on, repeatedly professed disdain for organized politics as it began to emerge at the end of the nineteenth century. His political standpoints ranged from anarchist to liberal.

 

Misogyny

At some point, Strindberg had earned himself the label “the misogynist”. While he sometimes wrote to challenge the subservient status of women in the society of his time, many ideas of women being ‘irrational’, whimsical and emotionally-swayed beings can be found in his writings.   He wrote:

“The Disciple asked: What is a misogynist? The Master replied: I do not know; but it is used by cowards as a term of abuse for those who say what everybody thinks. Cowards are the men who cannot approach a woman without going out of their minds and becoming treacherous. They buy the woman’s favour by serving their friends’ heads on a silver platter; and they absorb so much femininity that they see with their eyes and feel with their feelings. Agreed: there are things you do not mention in everyday conversation, and you do not tell your woman what is the essence of her gender; but one is sometimes allowed to write it.”

He incessantly gave many takes on the Woman Question, each not so far from being misogynistic. Though he features the ‘Modern Woman’ in many of his plays, his aim, when deduced through the plot arcs and ending of such plays, seems to be that of ridicule and reprimanding. For example, in the preface to Miss Julie, Strindberg writes, “the half-woman is a type coming more and more into prominence, selling herself nowadays for power, decorations, distinctions, diplomas, as formerly for money, and the type indicates degeneration”. Beyond writing, he had problems with a few women in real life. He accused his first wife Siri of careerism, lesbianism, infidelity, drunkenness, uncleanliness, having another man’s child, doubting his sanity, and not keeping the accounts. In his next two marriages the pattern repeated itself, though Strindberg gradually realized that his feelings stemmed from his own psychological disorder.

See a New York Times’ 1985 article on Strindberg and misogyny

 

Psychology, Politics and Science

Besides fiction, Strindberg wrote extensively on psychological issues. Such works include his works including ‘On Psychic Murder’ (1887) and ‘’The Stronger’ (1889). Somewhat, Strindberg was influenced by the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche. This is reflected in his works ‘Creditors’ (1889), ‘Pariah’ (1889), ‘By the Open Sea’ (1890) and ‘The Defence of a Fool’ (1893). He also wrote essays dealing exclusively with psychological theories and power struggles.

 

 

Charged for Blasphemy

He faced trial in Sweden with charges of blasphemy for his 1884 short stories collection, ‘Getting Married’. The real reason for the trial isn’t precisely clear. One reason supported by many historians is that he was accused of blasphemy for his portrayal of the Eucharist. Others purport he was charged for his unconventional portrayal of women. He had to return from Paris to Stockholm for the trials which he won eventually.

Also, a book called Strindbergian Literature and Immorality among Schoolchildren was written by a famous educationalist who would later become a bishop. Popular in Stockholm at the tme of Strindberg’s emergence as a writer, the book chastised Strindberg for corrupting the youth with pornographic insinuations in The Red Room. The book posited that he had spread sinful values and that he was responsible for increased masturbation among the youth.