Mirrors, Echoes, Dialogues
A character as a social being
Orzeszkowa’s novel is deeply permeated by the idea of organicism – not only in its declarative but also structural aspects. As already mentioned, the characters are presented in interpersonal interactions[1] as individuals shaped by social relations, and at the same time having a strong influence on their form, constituting a link between past and future generations.[2] Therefore, the action unfolds primarily through dialogue,[3] and the novel’s specific theatrical quality, noted already by early reviewers,[4] is reflected not only in the penchant for meticulously constructed set design (that “upholstery cleverness” in Sienkiewicz’s term[5]), which simultaneously characterizes the characters, in dramatic plot twists (such as Graba shedding his mask after the wedding), or in spectacular scenes framed by doorframes and doorways like tableaux vivants (this is how Celina Klońska sees the male company of gamblers in her home, which fills her with fear and a sense of threat, like a symbol of the menacing world “from outside” – Pan Graba, part 1, chapter 6, and Stanisław, tormented by jealousy, looks at his wife playing a sad melody on the piano as the embodiment of beauty and lost love – part 2, chapter 6). It can also be seen in the somewhat melodramatic behaviour of the characters, who verbalize their feelings in moments of strong emotions even when their only audience is the reader (for example, the aloud intrigues of Graba, who is hurt by rejection – part 1, chapter 8, or Kamilla’s attempted suicide – part 2, chapter 1).
The social dimension of human existence is most vividly illustrated by scenes of the deaths of three characters. Those whose sins are the result of error or weakness die in the arms of loved ones (like Mrs. G., struck with apoplexy, cradled by her daughter – Pan Graba, part 2, chapter 10). Their support allows them to overcome despair, anger, and fear of agony (e.g., Tozio Słabecki, who, thanks to his sister, passes away not with a curse on his parents, but with a prayer on his lips[6]). The dead will be mourned and buried. Meanwhile, the titular character, who has become a social outcast, bids farewell to life with the death of the damned – when he reconciles with the sentence, expressed in the words: “Repent and die!,” he will be completely separated from all human relationships and, after a night spent alone, during which isolation intensifies the disintegration of his personality,[7] he will inflict his own punishment. According to accepted religious and social norms, a suicide victim will be buried in an unmarked grave outside the human community – the sentence passed on an outlaw therefore extends even beyond death.
Orzeszkowa’s novel was critically acclaimed and enjoyed by readers, who recognized its noble approach and meticulous realism, its fidelity to the literary formulas of the era, the plausibility of the characters’ psychological behaviour, the specificity of its description, and the universality of its message. The dialogues appearing in the title of this essay are not merely conversations between the characters, which shape their personalities and influence their fates. The literature we encounter in Pan Graba is, above all, communication. Demonstrating her erudition, the author also engages in dialogue (and even polemics) with other cultural texts, as well as with the reader, whom she sometimes addresses directly to emphasize the importance of her warnings. This rather old-fashioned form of expression, however, is not jarring thanks to its moderation, a testament to the developing talent of Orzeszkowa, for whom Pan Graba is one of the works that marks the boundary between her early and mature work.
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Przypisy
- The negative influence on others is practically metaphorized as a contagious disease – these are the words Kamilla uses when begging a monk for spiritual support: “Crime has contagious breaths. Mockery and disbelief flow quickly from one breast to the other, while they are constantly close together. Am I to become, in time, an accomplice of a criminal who drags crowds of his neighbours to their doom?” (Pan Graba, part 3, chapter 3). Fortunately, this negative influence is balanced by the redeeming power of love and work towards others, personified in the characters of Celina and Ryta.
Cezary Zalewski analyses the specific form of interaction between the novel’s characters in the emotional sphere. Stanisław Kloński’s jealousy is a projection of his guilt towards his wife, and the way to win Celina back is to instinctively try to arouse the same feeling in her (See C. Zalewski, Mimetyczny minimalizm. Usuwanie zazdrości w powieściach Elizy Orzeszkowej [Mimetic Minimalism. Removing Jealousy in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s Novels], [in:] Sekrety Orzeszkowej [The Secrets of Orzeszkowa], eds. G. Borkowska, M. Rudkowska, I. Wiśniewska, Warszawa 2012, pp. 359–361). - Expressis verbis is captured in the words of the author’s narrator addressed to the reader over Tozio Słabecki’s deathbed: “You ask: can the virtues or vices of an individual weigh heavily on the scales of the general fate? And do you know what the quiet and noble work of an individual is? What are its quiet and persistent virtues? This is the foundation on which the edifice of the common good is built, the lever that elevates nations…
There is no misfortune that can equal the misfortune of wasting spiritual treasures; there is no greater crime than the crime of wasting them. He who kills the moral life within himself is equal in crime to the murderer who takes the physical life of his neighbour. Human laws have no punishment for him, but he will be judged terribly by the judgment of generations and branded on the lost soul with the mark of their curse, for he has taken from them what belonged to them.” (Pan Graba, part 3, chapter 9). - Grażyna Borkowska’s book is devoted to the analysis of this problem in the writer’s work: Dialog powieściowy i jego konteksty (na podstawie twórczości Elizy Orzeszkowej) [Dialogue in the Novel and its Contexts (Based on the Works of Eliza Orzeszkowa)], Wrocław 1988 – here, among other things, we talk about the relationship between salon conversation and acting and gambling (understood as “playing for something,” p. 43): “The connection between action and a person (identified with a specific social position) fosters a theatrical (gambling) conception of conversation; dialogue adheres to specific behavioural conventions, demonstrates the dependence of speech on the social status of the interlocutors, and becomes a reflection of nonverbal preferences” (p. 62). The varied dialogues in Pan Graba also serve as reminders of the past (p. 91), exposition inaugurating the action (p. 95), and pathetic speeches that become “the focal point of the novel’s scene.” “The bad and the good, the noble and the dishonest, undertake the effort to gain advantage – in and through words” (p. 153).
- Such observations appear in the reviews of Dionizy Henkel, Kazimierz Kaszewski, Aleksander Świętochowski and Stanisław Marek Rzętkowski, see Dzieje recepcji utworu [The History of the Novel’s Reception] in this volume.
- This “ease of painting details” in the novel of social life of the great world, which Pan Graba is, “enhances the plasticity of the place and people” (H. Sienkiewicz, “Pan Graba”. Powieść p. Elizy Orzeszkowej [“Mr Graba.” A Novel by Eliza Orzeszkowa], “Wieniec” [The Wreath] 1872, no. 85, p. 801).
- Repeated after Ryta (“From the depths into which my sins have sunk me, I cry to You, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice”) Tozio’s broken last words are a paraphrase of the penitential Psalm 130 (of the nature of an individual lamentation – a plea for the salvation of the soul, combined with collective prayer) De profundis clamavi ad te Domine, Domine, exaudi vocem meam – thanks to the ritual, the dying person finds support not only in sisterly love and his own faith, but also in the age-old religious tradition, which enables him to peacefully pass away into death-sleep (part 3, chapter 9).
- This is how we can explain the hallucinations that haunt Graba, the women he led to the death of – his first wife and his mother-in-law (critics saw these hallucinations as irritating symptoms of sentimentality, not evidence of the character’s mental disorder) – see A. Świętochowski, “Pan Graba”. Powieść w 3-ch częściach Elizy Orzeszkowej [“Mr. Graba.” A Novel in Three Parts by Eliza Orzeszkowa], “Przegląd Tygodniowy” [Weekly Review] 1872, no. 32, p. 254).
