When Strindberg wrote this play, he was already suffering from the stomach cancer that would kill him three years later, and he intended it as a summation of his thoughts on various questions, a kind of theatrical self-portrait and last testament.
[1][2] A literal translation of the Swedish title would be "The Great Country Road", and Strindberg intended this to reference the street where he had lived as a child, which led directly to the cemetery.
[3] The world premiere of the play took place on February 19, 1910, at the Intimate Theater of Stockholm with August Falck in the lead role of the Hunter.
Like the Hunter, all the other characters are symbolically named and include the Hermit, the Traveller, a group of Millers, the Girl, the Schoolmaster, the Blacksmith, the Photographer, the Organ-Grinder, the Japanese, the Murderer, the Child, the Woman, and the Tempter.
For example, the Millers he meets are fighting over the wind; elsewhere the Schoolmaster lives in the town of Eseldorf (Donkey Village) where being sane is a crime punishable by death.