Józka of the Boryna Household

Józka of the Boryna Household appears in a handful of domestic and communal moments that reveal her position between Boryna’s authority and Jagna Borynowa’s resentment. As Boryna’s daughter and Jagna’s stepdaughter, she is entrusted with work and oversight in the household, but she is also caught in the strain created by the older couple’s conflict and Jagna’s changing conduct.

Household Position and Work

Józka’s place in the family is clearest in the way others address and rely on her. Boryna gives her instructions about what needs doing and discusses household matters with her; he also commissions her to keep an eye on everything. His confidence makes her an active participant in the running of the farmstead, rather than simply a bystander to its disputes. When a task involving pails and preparing pigfeed is mentioned, the instruction is attributed to Józia, indicating how closely her name is associated with everyday household labor.

That responsibility also has a sharper side. Boryna’s renewed command of the home comes with Jagna’s exclusion from decisions: he turns to Józka to discuss practical matters, even though the narrator notes that the girl does not understand all of them. The arrangement makes Józka useful to her father while placing her in the middle of a household hierarchy whose roles are unsettled. She is given duties and access, but the evidence does not show that she has independent authority over the larger decisions.

Witness to Antek Boryna and Jagna Borynowa

At the inn, Józka brings Boryna news that Antek Boryna is dancing with his stepmother and that people are talking about it. Her report connects the public spectacle to the family’s private tensions: Antek dances exuberantly with Jagna while the womenfolk fuss, and Józka goes directly to her father rather than keeping the scene to herself. Boryna dismisses the concern, saying in effect that dancing is what an inn is for, and returns to his conversation and drinking.

Józka comes back without persuading him to act, but she continues to watch the dancers closely. Her attention gives her a role as an observer of behavior that the village is already scrutinizing. She does not control what happens between Antek and Jagna, and Boryna’s response leaves her warning without consequence in that moment. Still, her report establishes that she recognizes the impropriety as a matter of public notice, not merely a private family matter.

Conflict with Jagna Borynowa

After Boryna resumes control of the household, he treats Jagna sharply and guards her movements, while relying on Józka to watch over things. Jagna experiences this arrangement as being displaced from the position of mistress of the house. The resulting hostility falls directly on Józka: Jagna picks on her repeatedly, and at times scolds her so severely that the girl runs away in tears to complain.

Józka’s distress does not make her the sole cause of the household quarrels. Jagna’s anger is tied to her restricted position and to Boryna’s decision to entrust domestic oversight to his daughter. The text shows the imbalance in their power: Boryna sets the terms of the household, while Jagna lashes out at the person nearby who has been given duties and attention she has lost. Józka is therefore both a recipient of Jagna’s abuse and a visible sign of the changed domestic order.

Jagna’s treatment of her is not met with simple submission. When Jagna begins doing things out of spite, the conflict spreads through the cottage: she leaves Boryna in one chamber, has Pietrek play while she sings late into the night, and sets off for church without waiting for her husband. In that broader atmosphere of defiance, Józka’s tears and complaints register the personal cost of the adults’ struggle, even though the evidence does not describe her confronting Jagna directly.

Participation and Narrative Role

A quieter appearance shows Józka asking to join a gathering where Rocho is expected to read stories about kings. She looks to Boryna and says she would like to go too, using the familiar address Tatulu. Her request places her among those interested in the stories and in the company gathered to hear them; it also shows her seeking her father’s assent. The moment is interrupted by a dog barking and the arrival of Jasiek Płoszka, so the passage does not establish whether she attends.

Across these scenes, Józka is characterized through work, observation, and her reactions to family tension rather than through an extended account of her own history. She is a daughter whom Boryna trusts with practical responsibilities, a witness who alerts him to a public scandal, and a young household member made vulnerable by Jagna’s resentment. Her brief request to hear Rocho’s stories offers a contrasting glimpse of her beyond chores and conflict: she also wants a place in the household’s shared social life.