Jagna’s pregnancy

Jagna’s pregnancy is presented as a fact recognized by Maciej Boryna and Dominikowa, though Jagna herself denies it and says she does not want a child. The disclosure makes her reproductive future a point of conflict: Boryna treats it as cause for gratitude, while Dominikowa immediately considers what a child might inherit. Jagna’s refusal exposes the distance between their calculations and her own wishes.

Recognition and disclosure

The news emerges during an intimate encounter in the household storeroom. When something needs carrying, Boryna refuses to let Jagna lift it and takes it out himself. He then corners her, kisses her, and whispers so that Józka will not hear. Jagna understands none of this at first. When Boryna tells her that she and her mother have lost their heads and that what they are saying is untrue, she is rejecting the claim that she is pregnant, not welcoming a new prospect.

Boryna answers that he and Dominikowa know what they are about. He locates the expected birth in the household calendar: it is Yuletide, he says, so the child would come in July, at harvest. He acknowledges that the timing would be inconvenient, with heat and work, but insists that they will manage and should thank God. His response combines practical awareness of agricultural labor with religious gratitude. He tries to kiss Jagna again; she tears herself away and goes to her mother in protest. Dominikowa confirms the news stoutly, making clear that the two older adults are aligned even as Jagna contests their conclusion.

Jagna’s refusal

Jagna does not present the pregnancy as a welcome fulfillment of marriage. She says plainly that she does not want it and calls it another nuisance amid existing troubles. When she is warned that complaining may bring divine punishment, she answers defiantly that God may do so, then returns to her central point: she does not want a child. The scene gives her a direct voice, but not the power to settle what the adults regard as true. Their certainty closes around her denial without changing her stated preference.

Her resistance also distinguishes bodily and emotional stakes from the family’s material reasoning. When Dominikowa turns to the possible child’s share, Jagna dismisses land as something that matters to her mother but means virtually nothing to her. Her answer is not an argument about how much property the child should receive; she rejects the premise that land can make the pregnancy desirable. Boryna’s attempt to kiss her and her angry withdrawal sharpen that difference: the announcement is accompanied by physical intimacy she does not accept in that moment.

A child imagined through property

Dominikowa’s response makes inheritance the clearest practical consequence attached to the pregnancy. She speculates that if there were a child and Maciej died, his portion might be signed over to the child, equal to the portions of the others, perhaps even all of it. This is a conditional calculation, not a settled transfer or guaranteed inheritance. It nevertheless shows how quickly the possibility of a child becomes connected to the distribution of land within the household.

Dominikowa presents land as the basis of security, telling Jagna that life without it is like having no legs: a person rolls along but gets nowhere. She urges her daughter not to oppose Maciej or make him morose. The argument treats the pregnancy as a possible route to material standing, while also reinforcing the authority of the husband who controls the property. Jagna rejects both the value system behind this counsel and its appeal to her attachment to Maciej, saying that she does not care about him. The exchange therefore leaves no simple agreement between mother and daughter: they share knowledge of the pregnancy, but not its meaning.

Desire and the household future

A later scene places Jagna’s anticipated motherhood beside her continuing desire for an encounter away from the household. As Boryna prepares to leave, she is secretly glad that he will be gone for the day and imagines going out at dusk to the hayrick, a place associated with her meetings with Antek Boryna. Her excitement is described as physical and intense, but it gives way abruptly to dread. She falls silent, watches Boryna dress, and quietly asks him to take her with him. His surprise at the request leaves the immediate outcome unstated.

The scene does not explain that Jagna’s fear is caused by pregnancy, nor does it resolve her earlier refusal. Instead, the juxtaposition keeps two futures in view: the child anticipated by Boryna and Dominikowa, and the secret desire that draws Jagna toward the hayrick. Her pregnancy thus does not erase her separate wishes or make her reconciliation with married life automatic. It reveals a conflict over who gets to define what her body signifies: Jagna speaks of unwanted trouble, Boryna of gratitude and practical timing, and Dominikowa of land, security, and inheritance.