Cross is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in modern and contemporary drama. In this essay she discusses Miss Julie's inability to live within the gender and class roles imposed on her by society.

In his preface to Miss Julie, Strindberg refers to Julie as a "man-hating half woman," and indeed, the playwright draws her as such—though it should be pointed out that Julie despises not only men but women as well Nonetheless, psychologically— considered within the context of her time—Julie is neither wholly male nor wholly female, and she cannot find a place for herself within the social confines of either gender role. In addition, Julie, though an aristocrat by birth, does not fit in with either the upper classes or with the lower. Although she lives in a time during which rigid divisions in class and gender were softening, nineteenth-century Sweden...