Mirrors, Echoes, Dialogues

Significant onomastics

Characters of Pan Graba are often given significant surnames, a phenomenon very common in the writer’s early work. As Anna Martuszewska explains:

This tendency to bestow significant names on characters could be linked to Enlightenment didacticism, and this is certainly their origin. However, their function should probably not be limited solely to creating the work’s axiology; very clear without these names, as well. Rather, differently. It would be fair to say that their appearance stems from a general tendency characteristic of the novel’s early days: the desire to express as quickly as possible what is most important to the work, to establish the scope of preliminary information, and to enter into a referential pact between the sender and the recipient.

The Słabecki family, of course, has such a “fitting” surname (słaby ‘weak’, while weakness of character and lack of will seem to characterize most of its members, except for Ryta); positive characters associated with the village have surnames derived from trees (the Klońscy [derived from the name of tree: klon ‘maple’] family, the Jedliński [derived from the name of tree: jodła ‘fir’] sisters). The main character’s surname, however, may evoke associations not so much botanical (with the tree: grab ‘hornbeam’) as warning (with the verb grabić [to plunder]). Kalikst Graba, an experienced card player, robs the guests he entices of their property, while forcibly keeping his wife, who wants to leave him, by his side. 

Names also have a significant character. The basic meanings of names referred to in the 19th century corresponded to contemporary ones, as evidenced by, for example, a popular publication from the end of the century Znaczenie niektórych imion i wyrazów przyswojonych [The Meaning of Some Names and Loanwords] – according to its author, Edward it is a ‘rich caretaker’, Ignacy ‘fiery’, Kalikst ‘beautiful, shaped like a cup’, Kamill (only the masculine form of the name was mentioned) ‘spiritual servant’, Marcin ‘bold’, Michał ‘who is like God’, Małgorzata ‘expensive pearl’, Stanisław ‘become famous’, Teodor ‘a divine gift, pleasing to God’, Wiktor ‘victor’. The meaning of some names was interpreted slightly differently than in today’s etymological research, but the explanations proposed at that time seem to fit well into the world created by Orzeszkowa: Adela (Adelajda) ‘fair’, Celina, Laura ‘goddess of flowers,’ and Matylda ‘nice child’. This explanation fits well with the weak and spoiling mother of Kalikst, her only son; all her actions are delayed and her protests futile. Another example of somewhat more complex cultural references is the name of the squatter, gossiper, and hypocrite Ignacy Jodek, who so often gives “the word of an honest man.” This name was widespread and early in Ruthenia (St. Ignatius is the patriarch of Constantinople), and in Sarmatian Poland it gained greater popularity thanks to the cult of St. Ignatius of Loyola, brought by the Jesuits. It would therefore emphasize the character’s locality, his noble ancestry, and perhaps also his truly Jesuit hypocrisy?

In addition to their function of presenting and concisely characterizing the characters, linked to the axiology of the work, the names refer to extratextual knowledge and cultural codes common to the Polish author and reader in the 19th century. In this way, they reflect the social stratification of the time, for example, the servants bear popular, old baptismal names of Slavic origin (Kazimiera/Kazimira) or from the New Testament (mainly Hebrew: Jan – Jehō + hānān ‘God is gracious’; Michał – mīkhā’ēl ‘who is like God’), sometimes Latin, derived from martyrs and saints of the first centuries of Christianity (Marcin – Martinus, Martius ‘dedicated to Mars’). “The Lords” are called fashionable names, often having Latin or Greek origins, linked to literary and cultural associations (from the 18th century onwards it was mainly the influence of fashionable novels), also evoking positive connotations, such as the baptismal names of the proud Kamilla G., the good and naive Jedliński girls or the Słabecki siblings.

Significant onomastics are also used in the novel’s context for local names – the names of the young Kloński family’s estates (Wieńczyn, Dobra Wola) evoke positive connotations. The contrast between the only two specifically named streets, the “largest and smallest” of the city of M.: Złota [Gold] Street, home to the cream of society, and the modest Nadrzeczna [Riverside] Street, home to hard-working craftsmen, impoverished noblewomen, and Jewish moneylenders, evokes and develops the familiar urban/rural contrast: on one hand, wealth, culture, entertainment, corruption, and decline; on the other, poverty, nature, work, family, honesty, and life ideals.