Józka Boryna

Józka Boryna is Maciej Boryna’s daughter, seen within the household that gathers around him during his final illness. The evidence gives her no extended account of her past or private ambitions; instead, it places her in sharply distinct moments of family life. At church she appears in white, with red laces on her boots and a prayer book in her hand. Later, following a dog into the field, she finds her father’s body and cries out, bringing the household running. That movement from festive readiness to devastating discovery gives her limited but consequential presence in the family’s closing scenes.

Identity and Household

The text identifies Józka through her relationship to Maciej Boryna and through her place among the people of his household. When the family is preparing to go to church, she runs ahead as the others come out after the Angelus prayer time. Her clothes and prayer book make her part of a shared religious occasion, while her exchange with Witek the Stork-Keeper gives the scene an intimate, teasing note. She asks how she looks, turning in front of him; he admires her appearance by comparing her to a white goose. The description conveys her animation and the household’s familiar ease without supplying further biographical detail.

That moment is specific rather than a general portrait: Józka is shown on her way to church, dressed for the occasion, and seeking an approving response from someone she knows. The red bootlaces and prayer book place her practical, visible appearance alongside the religious purpose of the outing. Her father is not the focus of this exchange, but the scene situates her among the family members who share the rhythms of the household and village observance.

The Household Around Boryna

Józka’s family setting is also defined by Maciej Boryna’s vulnerability. At one point, Rocho makes the sign of the cross over him before leaving. In another scene, Hanka hurries to Boryna, who is sleeping beneath a quilt in a cart-basket under the trees. She tells him that Antek will return in three days, having been taken to the gubernia, and that Rocho has followed with money to pay for his release. Boryna briefly sits up as if listening, then lies back down and pulls the quilt over his head. Józka is not present in these reported actions, but they establish the precarious, closely watched condition of the household in which she lives.

The village’s talk about Jagusia and the Voyt supplies a different measure of that precariousness. People describe finding them drunk together under juniper bushes and condemn the scene as unprecedented in Lipce. Their outrage sharpens when one speaker recalls that Boryna is near death and has no one to pass him a drink of water. The passage records a public judgment about the household and its crisis, not Józka’s participation in the gossip or her response to it. Its relevance to her is therefore contextual: her family’s private distress unfolds amid village scrutiny and moral accusation.

Finding Her Father

Józka’s most consequential action comes when a dog leads her into the field. She follows it in good spirits, romping along, without knowing that it is taking her to her father’s body. When she sees him, she raises a terrible cry. The sound brings everyone racing to the field, where they find Boryna stiff, face down, with his arms stretched out as if in a cross. The narration compares his posture to a final, fervent prayer, joining the physical fact of his death to the religious imagery that also frames Józka’s earlier departure for church.

The family carries Boryna back to the cottage and tries to revive him, but its efforts and remedies are useless. The scene closes on the certainty that he is dead. Józka’s cry is the immediate signal that turns a private discovery into a household emergency: she does not perform a remedy or explain what has happened, but her alarm summons the others to the field. The contrast with her earlier playful question about her appearance is stark. In one scene she runs ahead toward a communal observance; in the other, her movement toward the dog ends in the discovery of a death that gathers the family around the body.

Narrative Role and Limits

Józka’s role is defined less by a sustained individual storyline than by these carefully placed appearances. The church scene presents her as lively and socially at ease; the death scene makes her the first member of the household shown reaching Boryna’s body. Together, the episodes connect ordinary family routine with the abruptness of bereavement. Religious objects and gestures recur across that contrast: her prayer book accompanies her to church, Rocho makes the sign of the cross over the dying man, and Boryna’s outstretched arms are likened to a final prayer.

The evidence does not establish Józka’s age, her thoughts about her father’s illness, or what becomes of her after his death. It does establish a concrete place for her in the family’s last scenes: she belongs to the household, shares its public religious life, and discovers the death that ends Boryna’s final vigil. Her brief appearances matter because the narrative lets a familiar, domestic presence carry the transition from anticipation and play to loss.