What Discoveries await in the Provinces? Or: A rather unusual thesis novel

Aneta Mazur

A collection of characters

As a nineteenth-century literary critic noted, Orzeszkowa’s early works should not be treated as “depictions of life” but as “collections of character portraits.”^[1] This argument proves true likewise in relation to Na prowincji; the nature of the protagonists drives the plot, with the characters finding themselves at the centre of an axiological debate that ensures that the author’s theses are amplified. Her early works have generally received praised for their depictions of women, yet in Na prowincji the emphasis is clearly on a pair of male protagonists^[2] who are also the most common recipients of comments and compliments. The general constellation of protagonists is, as so often in Orzeszkowa’s works, symmetrical. She draws on models inspired by Lavater, creating parallel or contrasting pairs: Aleksander Snopiński – Bolesław Topolski, Wincunia Niemeńska – Matylda Karliczowa, Jerzy Snopiński – Andrzej Orlicki.^[3] Even though they act as vehicles for her guiding thesis, to describe them as “stiff and cardboard” or as “caricatures”^[4] would be unfair. “Where was the wrongdoer? […] There were no guilty parties among them,”^[5] as one reviewer commented in a nuanced and open axiology of the protagonists in Na prowincji. The characters do not fit the dualism that was ascribed to Orzeszkowa’s earlier works, which seemed to claim that there were two kinds of people in the world: those who have carnal desires and thus “suffer disappointment, pain and misfortune,” and those who love the soul and will encounter “heaven on Earth.”^[6]

“The figure depicted most vividly, if somewhat ideally, is Bolesław.”^[7] Indeed, the hero of the novel, who bears a royal name, is a rather diverse figure. He has four faces: the model farmer and social activist; representative of the minor nobility and bearer of Old Polish chivalrous and patriotic traditions^[8]; love interest; and a suffering individual endowed with intellectual traits. He is most effective in the role of the ideal hero of organic work, yet this is also his least attractive side; the general scope of the programme and its smooth implementation means that he faces none of the problems encountered by Wilk Garbowiecki.^[9] It is possible that the figure of Topolski was inspired by the central protagonist of Kraszewski’s Dziwadła [The Oddities], who was an ideal farmer and took care of the ordinary people while also holding similar views (“we do not live for our own hearts, for the singular love of a woman, but for the love of the people, for everyone”^[10]). The cryptic, Aesopian language suggests that the role of the modern Sarmatian Polonus was played by Orzeszkowa’s protagonist by drawing on literary tradition and doing so rather haphazardly. His two remaining functions are closely related to each other: Topolski suffers personal disappointment and adopts a nobly passive attitude, withdrawing from the struggle for his own happiness.^[11] Given Orzeszkowa’s own views at the time, we could argue that Bolesław’s only fault was to become too deeply bound up in emotions since, as Orzeszkowa declared in the motto to W klatce: “a man’s love for a woman should not be the be all and end all of human existence, […] since it is only a weak person who can be defeated and broken by such love.”^[12] Yet the protagonist of Na prowincji is defeated twice. This adds some colour to this otherwise highly idealized figure and thus provides a reason for his helpful “guardian angel” to appear by his side. Ultimately, these moments of quasi-revelation or contemplation by Topolski anticipate similar motifs that would appear in Orzeszkowa’s late works.^[13] It is Bolesław whom she endows with the climate of the years she spent in the desolate Milkowszczyna, thus unwittingly foretelling her future as a recluse in Grodno.^[14]

“The one who stands out among them all is the naturalist Andrzej.”^[15] He certainly is not merely a “philosopher-‘naturalist’ wandering aimlessly and commenting on the protagonists’ behaviour.”^[16] Orlicki is the second, even more perfect, embodiment of a positive character, as he assists Bolesław in achieving personal and social maturity. He figures as a deus ex machina, who always appears at the right moment, a trusty sidekick saving Bolesław in moments of crisis while acting as a strict teacher of the ethics of responsibility and renunciation. He is something of a stilted figure, inviting associations with the classicist mentors of Bildungsromane, with the hierophants of the ultimate mysteries or the Master declaring another apostle. Andrzej is responsible for the novel’s anointed and just about tolerable pathos. This amateur scientist also embodies the archetype of an educated individual, bearing clear traces of both Orzeszkowa’s own biography as well as of the texts she was reading at the time (indeed, he functions as a literary homage to the luminaries of the Enlightenment and as a reference to Stanisław Staszic, who also conducted research in the Carpathian Mountains).^[17] The model for the character of Andrzej Orlicki might be found in the Polish botanists and biologists of the age, including the pioneer of ornithology Count Kazimierz Wodzicki (1818-1889), who was well known across Europe.^[18]

“A totally hackneyed lightweight, a wastrel.”^[19] Aleksander Snopiński forms the missing link between the model of a harmless, pathetic provincial dandy and the vision of a demonic scoundrel as embodied by Graba.^[20] It is unclear if, and if so to what extent, the lifestyle of Piotr Orzeszko and his milieu served as a model for this character.^[21] Some elements of the protagonist’s behaviour – half-dandy, half-debauched (his interest in horses and the eccentric idea of important swans from Warsaw), are suggestive of the debauchery typical of the golden youths of the mid-nineteenth-century eastern borderlands. Despite the persistent refrain that this highly talented young man^[22] was a victim of the old-fashioned upbringing practiced by his parents who loved him blindly, Aleksander is consistently depicted as a born pleasure-seeker and hedonist. Stylized as a moral and supremely handsome seducer, he becomes, like Graba, almost an embodiment of pure evil. It was from him that his wife “learned the dark secrets of human nature” (part 2, chapter V).^[23] Guided by the ambition and vanity of his rival, it is he who carries the plot and intrigues of the novel. And it is he who emerges victorious over the plot, proving false the guiding argument of Orzeszkowa’s early works that suggested that wrongdoers would certainly face punishment (in this respect, Na prowincji is something of an exception^[24]). The moralizing aspects are, however, accompanied by a characterization of the protagonist that demonstrates psychological depth. Critics have praised the depiction of Aleksander’s downfall from a loving to insensitive husband. What is also interesting about him as a character is the image of his internal struggles as a fundamentally weak individual. Indeed, the motif of a sinner yearning in vain for goodness would become a key feature of Orzeszkowa’s later works as a “casuist of the conscience.” Overall, the extent of Snopiński’s guilt and responsibility is relativized as this “charming yet weak and somewhat base youth”^[25] is “the most unhappy individual,” falling victim to others’ acts and thus a “mere sinner” tormented by his self-awareness (part 2, chapters VI and V).

“More successful are the female figures, like Wincunia.”^[26] It is difficult to be impressed today by “an idyllic country girl modelled on Mickiewicz’s Zosia,”^[27] although this only applies to the early sequences of the novel. Subsequent parts, depicting the transformation of the central female protagonist from the initial naïve girl through the enamoured girl, to the mature women certainly deserve recognition and confirm the impression that Orzeszkowa indeed enjoyed much success in her early works in depicting female characters.^[28] In contrast to Aleksander, Wincunia emerges as an embodiment of human (female) dignity and modesty. Resembling closely the Victorian model of a “the Angel in the House,”^[29] the figure of a passive martyr seemingly drawn from romance novels does not fit the stereotype of a woman seeking emancipation, a fixture of engaged novels, nor does she match the stoic model of women as “wise and angelic,”^[30] as favoured by late-era Orzeszkowa. She does not offer an illustration of “women rendered unhappy by an imposed marriage” nor of “women spiritually damaged by their upbringing”^[31]; on the contrary – Wincunia makes herself unhappy, revealing herself to be self-defeatingly resistant to the baggage that comes with the strict upbringing that she received. Piwińska rightly noted the unprecedented radicalism with which Na prowincji warns against the destructive, pathological force of eroticism.^[32] The plot line with Wincunia, which forms perhaps the most attractive and modern element of the discourse in the novel, reflects the anti-romance tones of the novel, leaving little to the imagination when it comes to including intimate and indeed, for the time, sometimes quite daring depictions of a girl’s psychophysiology, details of married life, and the material concerns of everyday life. There are some rhetorical and poetic flourishes that accompany the female protagonist who was conceived as a figure carrying the novel’s central argument.^[33] This offers further evidence of the contradictions and contrasts forming the world depicted in Na prowincji.

“The temptress type is represented by Mrs Karliczowa.”^[34] Of the secondary characters, particularly interesting is the provincial femme fatale, Aleksander’s benefactor and metor, a widow who tackles her boredom by getting involved in romantic affairs and chasing down an inheritance with the remnants of her youth. Matylda Karliczowa is, on the one hand, another embodiment of “a vampire of the salons in a beautiful body, a capricious madam,”^[35] while on the other hand, she prefigures the protagonist of the novel Cham [The Boor]. She is the first Beauvoirian figure in the works of Orzeszkowa and an entirely deft one at that. The narrative indeed generates a separate study focused on her, emphasizing the role of “poisonous” reading material as well as her capricious manner and contradictions of her restless character. As with the young Snopiński (and the angelic-demonic Klotylda, one of the heroines of W klatce), Mrs Karliczowa embodies the “decent sinner” archetype, one who does wrong without being evil. Ultimately, she undergoes a conversion, accepting the marriage proposal of a valuable individual. Her case stands in contrast to that of Wincunia and that of many other figures in the works of Orzeszkowa: similarly to the female protagonist of Ostatnia miłość, she fell in love “for the final time” in her life and much like the contrite heroine of W klatce, she undergoes a profound change, and with her religious devotion having “something essential” about it she also prefigures the satires of the later novel Pierwotni [The Originals]. Ultimately, her personality and the way she treats Aleksander anticipates the characters in Pani Luiza and Dobra pani.

“Who stands out is the smalltown innkeeper Szloma.”^[36] Among the remaining characters in the novel, beyond the sympathetic Jewish innkeeper couple (who might possess strange foibles but nevertheless belong among the positive figures), particularly notable is Count Kalikst K. (N.), who makes occasional appearances. Presented as a phlegmatic wealthy gent, Cincinnatus, model businessman and farm owners, and enlightened citizen all rolled into one person^[37], he constitutes, alongside Countess X., yet another naïve illustration of the social agenda and programme as conceived by the upper classes. However, he is also an example of a Dickensian figure, a rare occurrence in Orzeszkowa’s later novels, so someone who is depicted in equally exceptional and humorous tones (the marriage proposal scene is full of discreet humour). The double physiognomy of the Snopińskis – the coarse landlord and his industrious, limited wife, is not unusual. Indeed, it is stereotypical, psychologically somewhat inconsistent and in fact borders on caricature.^[38] Instead, though, it is worth highlighting the fleetingly depicted figure of Antosia, “an orphan who out of mercy is given a place in the home of the Snopińskis” (part 1, chapter I), with Orzeszkowa providing a glimpse into how her objectification by her benefactor to suggest the bitter fate faced by others in a similar situation to the orphan. Finally, an interesting plot device, with Aleksander’s parents’ move to a new estate in Polesie, while surely a device necessary to drive the plot in the desired direction, providing further evidence of the blurring of black-and-white takes on the characters. The fact that the countess, otherwise depicted in a positive light, sacks an honest worker could be interpreted as an outcome of the unsuccessful attempts at managing the estate by the competent but uneducated Snopiński senior.^[39] Or it might be a realistic depiction of local relations as full of jealousy and intrigues.