The Botanical Gardens
The Botanical Gardens were founded for scientific purposes on a plot of land in the northern part of the Royal Łazienki Park, adjacent to Aleje Ujazdowskie in 1818. An impressive building of the Astronomical Observatory, erected next to the entrance, divided the old park from the Gardens. The entrance was not free, but the Gardens were so beautifully landscaped and maintained, and they obtained so many new plant species, planted in elaborately designed flower beds, that the place quickly became the most popular meeting point among the inhabitants of Warsaw. In The Doll, The Botanical Gardens were almost crowded: streams, groups or at least rows of promenaders crowded every alley, each bench groaned under a throng of persons. They stepped in Wokulski’s way, trod on his heels, elbowed him; people were talking and laughing on every side. The experience is so painful that the character, looking for a more peaceful refuge, seeks solace in the Łazienki park.
Yet it was the Botanical Gardens that are especially conducive to Wokulski’s thoughts and that encourage him to make important decisions. There Wokulski talks to Julian Ochocki about the meaning of life, shakes off the melancholia, and realises that fame is more important than trade and money. His way to fame is to lead through work and danger, which does not quite fit the dreams of scientific discoveries and inventions. This is probably not the only meaning of the fragment. The context suggests that something is left out because of the censorship and that the hill towering above the Gardens and the Łazienki park alludes to the idea of independence. The ruins preserved on the hill are the remains of the Temple of Providence, erected in 1792 to commemorate the Constitution of 3 May 1791. Wokulski’s memories, evoked by the place, go back to the January Rising (1863–64), in which he participated. The memory revived by the Gardens endows the character with power and will to survive, and it nobly (though not for long) shifts the hierarchy of values governing his life.
The Botanical Gardens, if positioned in the context of national history and patriotic traditions of the Insurrection, become the symbol of the Polish struggle for independence both in the parliament and in the battlefield. Simultaneously, in the world of positivist ideals, the park points to history as an essential element in thinking about the future.
→ Suffering; → Discoveries and Inventions; → Wokulski, Stanisław;
