Agata’s Return and Death

The Peasants

This thread traces Agata’s seasonal begging, longing for a dignified death among kin, and the failure of kinship to provide lasting shelter.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Winter Beggar The Winter Beggar from "The Peasants". The Winter Beggar A customary exile Agata leaves the Kłąb household to beg through winter, having signed over her property and lacking a secure place to live.

The Winter Beggar from "The Peasants". The Winter Beggar A customary exile Agata leaves the Kłąb household to beg through winter, having signed over her property and lacking a secure place to live.

The Winter Beggar A customary exile Agata leaves the Kłąb household to beg through winter, having signed over her property and lacking a secure place to live. The cost of dependence Her journey exposes an old woman’s reliance on relatives and charity after losing control of her land and savings.

A Hopeful Return A Hopeful Return from "The Peasants". A Hopeful Return Homecoming Agata returns to Lipce in spring, exhausted and ill, but grateful to see the village and its familiar fields again.

A Hopeful Return from "The Peasants". A Hopeful Return Homecoming Agata returns to Lipce in spring, exhausted and ill, but grateful to see the village and its familiar fields again.

A Hopeful Return Homecoming Agata returns to Lipce in spring, exhausted and ill, but grateful to see the village and its familiar fields again. A modest hope She has saved enough for burial and hopes to die in a bed among her own people, with the customary prayers and dignity.

Shelter at the Kłąbs’ Shelter at the Kłąbs’ from "The Peasants". Shelter at the Kłąbs’ A welcome that fades The Kłąbs receive Agata, but she is weak and cannot contribute the labor she once might have offered.

Shelter at the Kłąbs’ from "The Peasants". Shelter at the Kłąbs’ A welcome that fades The Kłąbs receive Agata, but she is weak and cannot contribute the labor she once might have offered.

Shelter at the Kłąbs’ A welcome that fades The Kłąbs receive Agata, but she is weak and cannot contribute the labor she once might have offered. A lost burial quilt Her carefully kept deathbed quilt is used for someone else, reviving the fear that even her final arrangements are not secure.

A Final Journey A Final Journey from "The Peasants". A Final Journey Failing health Agata becomes gravely ill and moves among households seeking somewhere to spend her last days.

A Final Journey from "The Peasants". A Final Journey Failing health Agata becomes gravely ill and moves among households seeking somewhere to spend her last days.

A Final Journey Failing health Agata becomes gravely ill and moves among households seeking somewhere to spend her last days. A final shelter She dies after securing a place and the rites she had long hoped for, a poor woman’s dignified end amid a village that scarcely knows how to care for its vulnerable.

early autumn

early spring

after her return

late summer