Though authors often use their lives as a source for their fiction, few writers have blended fact, research and fiction as effectively as August Strindberg. Miss Julie typifies Strindberg's creative energy and the close relation between what he wrote and what he lived. The play has been one of his most widely read and performed works, translated into numerous languages and performed on stage, radio, television and film. Touching on some of the most complex and controversial topics in Western literature, the play's influence can be seen in the works of authors ranging from Ibsen to Chekhov, O'Neill and Genet.

Public responses to Miss Julie have always been complicated; its shocking subject matter and dialogue made it difficult to stage in its own time, though these elements surprise the modern reader less. Yet the play confronts issues that are as current now as they were when the play was written: class conflict, gender stereotypes and a degree of sexuality that ranges from the seductive to the sadomasochistic.