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    A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger"
    A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger"
    A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger"
    Ebook37 pages21 minutes

    A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 12, 2016
    ISBN9781535839860
    A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger"

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      A Study Guide for August Strindberg's "The Stronger" - Gale

      12

      The Stronger

      August Strindberg

      1889

      Introduction

      August Strindberg's The Stronger, which premiered in 1889 at Strindberg's Scandinavian Experimental Theater in Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the most commonly performed plays in the world, not only because of the importance of its author but also because of its brevity: it is intended to run for about fifteen minutes. It is highly unusual in that, while it has two characters, only one of them speaks, delivering what is effectively a monologue, while the other reacts only through gesture and expression.

      Although the surface of the play gives every appearance of bourgeois gentility—its characters are two middle-class women meeting in a Victorian coffeehouse—it explores one of Strindberg's main themes, that interaction between human beings always was and still is a savage struggle for dominance and that the evolution of so-called polite society has merely replaced physical violence with psychological violence. In the brief action of the play, one of the characters is revealed as the stronger, and the other is nearly destroyed by the psychological blows she delivers. The text is so subtle, however, that only the most determined untangling of the drama can reveal which is which.

      Author Biography

      Strindberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 22, 1849. His mother was a maid, and his father was a clerk in a shipping office. His relationship with his parents was deeply troubled. His mother resented his intellect, and his father resented his success. Throughout his life, Strindberg was indecisive and restless and marked by a strange combination of talent and failure. Supporting himself as a tutor, Strindberg switched back and forth between the liberal arts curriculum of the university in Uppsala and a premedical scientific education at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm, until his failure in chemistry exams settled the issue. However, he never completed a formal degree.

      While still at school in the late 1860s, Strind-berg began to publish articles in Swedish newspapers and magazines, and in 1870, his one-act play In Rome was performed at the Royal Theater in Stockholm. He continued to publish fiction, dramas, and essays, but in 1874, he became an assistant librarian and soon considered himself a failed

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