Few More Words About Different States of Mind, Politics and Art

18^th February 2021

 

I have already written one essay, but there are still many things that need to be mentioned. Let’s make it the second tour of old literature and historical themes.

Previously, I wrote a lot about the main character, about her prototype - Izabela Czartoryska - so now I should also say few words about William. If the first volume is a story of hysterical woman, what disease caught Elizabeth's husband? Could this be a sadism? Firstly, let's focus on the beginning of the novel. Well, yes, this gentleman was lost and was enjoying the suffering of his poor lover. People like such dark, bad boy stories, so why not to describe it? At the end of The Mountain Chapter, we see both characters changing. She becomes grateful for everything and he begins to enjoy love and little smiles that he has given to his wife. He’s very romantic, isn't he?

Let us move from psychology to a slightly different, but not entirely, ground - the peasant matter. How do the sources present the situation of the villagers and subjects? Bad. Izabela herself believed that the peasant would not know what to do with freedom, that they needed a leader stronger than themselves. The situation is finally changing in the second half of 19^th century. Positivists fought fiercely for education and better life for this social class. Various associations were established, and the first village schools were opened. The actual enfranchisement looked different in the individual partitions and unfortunately, it was often a fiction. All in all, it can be said that the entire 19^th century was a fight for countryside.

The main character has already manifested what happened decades later. First of all, Elizabeth saw people in her subjects, she offered them fair salaries for their work and showed them heart at every step. Her kindness is a paraphrase of Izabela's feelings. The real Great Lady herself had a special love for gardens and nature. One of verse excerpts that I wrote especially for this novel, contains a part of the Duchess's true love for... oaks. No doubt that a woman who could’ve been mistaken for a poor gardener had to be kind and gentle.

Another interesting case is the duchess's travels. Well, she didn’t like boredom but traveling did not give her pleasure. The trip was a good excuse to change the environment. Izabela did change the air and landscapes often. One of the most interesting journals she wrote for herself is Tour Through England. Interestingly, she was reluctant to leave. I will focus on this thread in the second volume, but it’s worth mentioning right now. In the first volume I decided to make over this journey from 1789-1790 with her son Adam Jerzy to the circumstances of birth of Elizabeth. These are the years of the Four-Year Sejm, Izabela was very politically involved, but her husband decided at one point that it would be safer to send her abroad. Soon, in 1791, the Constitution of the Third Of May was created, and then Izabela was able to return to the country. In the novel, it’s the journey of Elizabeth's parents and the reason for her mother's strong emotions and the imminent birth of her daughter. In the novel, however, the year of birth and constitution is 1793.

Romantic poets enthusiastically returned to those times in their texts, incl. Juliusz Słowacki. Patriotism was a typical feature of Polish Romanticism and this is how poetry often referred to politics.

What made it possible to survive the partitions? Religion. It was, however, real faith, not devotional behaviour. Romantics, especially Słowacki and Mickiewicz, specialized in mystical experiences, not only those on paper. It was the time of searching for the true God, the time of the final breakaway from the underdevelopment of Church, but faith was still important to Polish ancestors under partitions and during wars of the 20^th century. God allowed Poles to survive in captivity and uncertain times.

The scene of the meeting with the holy martyr is also a prediction of the November Uprising 11 years earlier (1819+11=1830; you’re welcome), I mentioned protagonists of this unexpected visit in the mountain manor of Elizabeth and William in my previous essay. Some minds were getting ready to fight, and it was common thinking from the loss of independence (1795) until 1918. The poetical descriptions of the main character’s dreams include views of the Battle of Warsaw, the First World War, also the Second. The Prophetess Lady. In addition, it’s also a realization of the idea of sylwa in modern prose.

Before I move to the last part of this text supplementing some previously omitted matters, I need to scratch few words on this tablet of eternal thoughts about duels and foreign languages.

Duels is a quite popular theme in the literary or in general cultural returns to the 19^th century. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be nice to skip even the infamous episodes in the story, so I had to bring William's threat of shooting, as well as his jealous dark past. We often hear that someone would kill for love or because of it, and strong anger and hate… Unfortunately, these animal instincts to remove obstacles and enemies open in us. The point is not to let these impulses win with you.

Coming back to duels... Where did this custom and the current popularity in depicting it come from? If The Sorrows of Young Werther caused waves of suicides in the past, answers may need to be searched in the literature. The people of the 19^th century used to take to heart the words of spiritual guides. I am only suggesting this option here… Anyway, it's quite a corny topic today, but still evoking a lot of emotions, right?

I must return to Izabela Czartoryska's diary from her travels around England and Scotland again. The linguistic customs of the aristocracy of that time were interesting. French played the role of an international and even official language. The novel Diary of Waclawa by Eliza Orzeszkowa teaches us that conversations always had to start with greetings and introductory formulas in French. It also often happened that French words crept in in further conversations, and unfortunately - often the knowledge of the native language was much worse. The level of knowledge of French also varied. Izabela herself wrote a diary in French, with some fragments in English and Polish. An educated woman of her times. After all, she was a foreigner (née Flemming), and the English language wasn't widely known.

Now it's time for music. The turn of the 18^th and 19^th centuries was the time of the popularity of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's operas. Only Richard Wagner introduced a radical change in the musical theatre in the second half of the 19^th century. He introduced an extraordinary number of instruments onto the stage, wrote plays inspired by German mythology, which is why it belongs to the Romantic trend, and even built a special theatre. In Poland (or France, he emigrated then just like so many Poles had to after 1830) Fryderyk Chopin celebrated his triumphs, always emphasizing his Polish origin and being also considered as a romantic. Music was one of the most important arts of this era, so I will definitely come back to this theme until the end of the novel. After all, William is a pianist!

Theatre. The turn of the centuries (19^th-20^th) brought the Great Reform of Theatre, and its effects can be seen in the play written by Elizabeth. She has ambitions to become a reformer... She’s already predicted such changes in 1819!

What were the changes in the theatre of the above-mentioned times? At an attempt to depart from the bourgeois theatre. People used to come to theatres to take care of their affairs, often physical, and plays were often about nothing but bourgeois life and betrayals. Art was forgotten and the theatre became a place of outrageous events. Often people also came to gaze at the stars. Many artists were fed up, so they began to bring in numerous changes in the set design, technical, direction, and finally a new quality of the art of speech and meaning. In Poland, Stanisław Wyspiański and Witkacy (in the interwar period) were known for their reforms. It’s also worth to mention such names as Brecht, Stanislavski, Maeterlinck and Ibsen.

Future notes will bring more art. Izabela collected works of art (Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci), so something similar must appear in the novel. You know. Today, thanks to her, Poles have these priceless works in the Czartoryski’s Museum in Cracow. Practically the entire museum consists of exhibits bought by the duchess. She acquired a lot of interesting exhibits in England, for example Shakespeare's chair (she was in his house). She loved his plays so no wonder...

The last feature of the 19^th century is... tuberculosis. It was definitely a disease of age. Many famous artists died because of it, for example Chopin, Słowacki. I hope I don’t need to explain what this disease is about?

This is a novel, so I must summarize the essay part with reference to contemporary genre changes. Maybe moving away from porn would be a good thing? Artistic fullness and talking about important problems are possible in gentler ways… I’m proposing here the virginity and hybrid status of literature. I mean that we should take all good elements out of the past and combine them into one. Modern works eagerly reach for alternative stories, but I go a step further. At least, I hope so.