Undoubtedly "the most significant linguistic feature" in drama, deixis can be of various kinds. In a genre as conflict-oriented as drama, personal pronouns necessarily form an important category. This is especially true in a language which, like Swedish, distinguishes between a formal and an intimate form of address, ni and du, roughly corresponding to French vous and tu. The present paper focusses on the dramatological aspects of deixis, i.e. the way personal pronouns serve to indicate significant changes in the relations between the characters. Strindberg's tragedy Miss Julie (1888), here used as a paradigm, demonstrates how the shifting relations between the aristocratic Julie, her servant Jean and her cook Kristin are subtly highlighted by the way in which the characters talk to and about each other. The significant shift in this respect occurs after the intercourse between Julie and Jean in the middle of the play. Before the intercourse Julie addresses Jean in the third person with han (he) - as does Kristin for a rather different reason - whereas Jean respectfully addresses her with Miss, Miss Julie or ni. After the intercourse Julie, feeling that the class barrier between them has been abolished, changes to a tender du. When Jean, feeling differently, abstains from using this intimate form of address, Julie becomes disappointed. In a scornful attack on him she retains it And now he responds with an equally contemptuous du. The example shows how even identical deictic signs can have radically different meanings in different contexts.
