Jagna is told she is pregnant

The pregnancy announcement turns a private bodily fact into a dispute over family land. Maciej Boryna and Dominikowa treat the expected child as a possible heir and a reason for gratitude, while Jagna rejects the news and the future they begin arranging around it. Her response makes clear that the adults’ confidence cannot substitute for her consent.

The announcement

Before the news is plainly discussed, Maciej Boryna takes something from Jagna himself rather than allowing her to carry it. He then corners her in the storeroom, kisses her vigorously, and whispers so that Józka Boryna will not hear. The physical intimacy and secrecy precede his explanation: he and Dominikowa know what they are talking about. The scene’s staging gives the announcement an uneasy closeness; Maciej’s confidence arrives through touch and private speech before Jagna has accepted what he tells her.

Maciej calculates that the child is due in July, at harvest time. He acknowledges that the timing will be inconvenient because of the heat and work, but insists that they will manage and should thank God. The practical difficulty is admitted only to be folded into a reassuring plan. For Maciej, the pregnancy is something the household can absorb; for Jagna, it is another trouble added to those already weighing on her.

Jagna’s refusal

Jagna first denies the claim, saying that Maciej and Dominikowa have lost their heads and are imagining things. When Maciej tries to kiss her again, she tears away angrily and runs to her mother, full of reproaches. Dominikowa confirms the news stoutly. The contrast is decisive: Jagna’s denial does not unsettle the older couple’s certainty, and her appeal to her mother brings confirmation rather than support for her refusal.

Jagna says that she does not want the child, and calls the pregnancy an additional nuisance when there are already enough troubles. When warned that the Lord Jesus might punish her for complaining, she answers defiantly that He may do so. The exchange puts her resistance in direct opposition to the religious language through which the others urge acceptance. Her objection is not presented as a calculation about convenience alone: she says plainly that she does not want this future.

Pregnancy and the promise of land

Dominikowa counters Jagna’s resistance with an inheritance prospect. If there is a child and Maciej dies, she argues, his portion could be signed over to the child on equal terms with the others, perhaps even in its entirety. The pregnancy therefore becomes a possible route to land and security, its value measured through inheritance before Jagna has embraced the prospect of motherhood.

Jagna dismisses that reasoning: land occupies their thoughts, she says, but means almost nothing to her. Dominikowa answers that life without land leaves a person unable to get anywhere, and warns Jagna not to oppose Maciej or make him morose. Her counsel makes the practical stakes explicit: land is the older woman’s measure of security, while Jagna refuses to let that measure settle what she wants. Jagna ends by saying that she will not keep her feelings pent up and asking what she cares for Maciej. The exchange thus connects her rejection of the pregnancy to a broader breach in the marriage, without resolving that conflict.

Significance

The announcement is less a shared moment of welcome than a contest over who may define its meaning. Maciej and Dominikowa move quickly from pregnancy to timing, household management, divine gratitude, and inheritance. Jagna answers with denial, anger, and a refusal that the family’s plans do not absorb. The scene’s concrete details—the hidden whisper in the storeroom, the harvest-month calculation, and the proposed transfer of land—show how intimate life is drawn into household labor and property expectations. Its ending leaves those competing meanings unresolved: the adults speak as though a future can be organized, while Jagna rejects the terms on which they would organize it.