Kozłowa

Kozłowa, also identified as Magda and listed as the wife of Bartek, is one of Lipce’s outspoken women. Her scenes place her among hired workers whose livelihoods are threatened by winter scarcity, the imprisonment of men, and the shortage of work. She speaks forcefully when the poor ask for help, but her voice also turns sharp in personal quarrels and rumor. That contrast makes her more than a representative of hardship: she shows how a village’s capacity for solidarity can coexist with its appetite for accusation.

Identity and Circumstances

The household roster identifies Kozioł and Kozłowa as a married pair, listing Bartek as the husband and Magda as the wife. The narrative presents Kozłowa in public scenes as a woman who speaks directly and loudly, whether appealing to the priest on behalf of workers or confronting the Voyt’s wife across a village road. Her social position is visible in the concerns she raises: food, wages, the planting season, and whether anyone with resources will help those who have none.

The village’s economic distress gives those concerns urgency. At least twenty hired hands are said to be desperate for work; frost has ruined some potatoes, money is scarce, and the coming preharvest is feared. Many poor people can manage a hot meal only once a day, while others go to bed hungry. The expectation that felling at Wolf’s Hollow might provide work collapses when the squire refuses to employ Lipce men. Against this background, Kozłowa’s later appeals are not abstract pleas for kindness: they concern whether poor households can plant, eat, and make it to harvest.

Speaking for the Poor

Kozłowa appears at the head of weeping hired hands who stop the priest and Rocho as they visit households to thank people for helping Lipce. The women ask whether the men will also come to their aid. They have waited for their turn, but the visitors are already leaving; without help to plant potatoes, one woman says, there may be nothing left but a rope. The priest promises to arrange assistance, offering his horses for a day and saying he will ask others, including the miller and the Voyt.

Kozłowa rejects the comfort of a promise that has not yet become help. She urges the women not to stand there waiting and mocks the likelihood that aid will arrive in time. Her rebuke draws a hard distinction between farmers who have resources and the poor, who are left to suffer. The priest blocks his ears and leaves; the women remain together in tears, while Rocho tries to console them and promises to seek help. The scene shows both the force of Kozłowa’s protest and its limits: she can name the inequality plainly, but she cannot compel those with horses, money, or authority to act.

Her account of village misery broadens the same indictment. She recounts a cold cottage where a hungry girl is near death, the family’s potatoes and quilt already gone, and a mother forced to beg for groats. She then describes Florka Pryczkowa, ill and without savings, giving birth while the fields stand fallow because the men are imprisoned. The newborn is strong, but Florka is thin and has no milk. Kozłowa’s account moves from one household to another, connecting hunger and childbirth to absent labor, debt, and the lack of anyone able to help. She also challenges the farmers’ indifference: rich and poor live in the same village, yet the comfortable can shield themselves from hearing the poor complain and leave their suffering to Jesus.

Quarrels and Public Reputation

Kozłowa’s bluntness also shapes her confrontations. In a quarrel outside the Voyt’s cottage, she and the Voyt’s wife face each other across fences and the road, shouting and shaking their fists. When the Voyt’s wife grabs a fence picket and rushes into the road, Kozłowa runs toward her and taunts her: “Come on, Mrs Voyt! You just touch me, you pig of a crone!” She warns that a blow could bring imprisonment. The Voyt holds his wife back, while a boy from Modlica cheers the argument on. The episode turns a domestic dispute into a public spectacle, with Kozłowa refusing the role of a quiet or intimidated opponent.

Her sharp tongue has another use when she encounters Jagusia returning from a private meeting with Jasio. Kozłowa says that she thought she had interrupted prayers, then claims the organist’s wife sent her searching and that she found the pair under a pear tree, hidden from other eyes. Jagusia curses her and strides away; Kozłowa calls after her, mocking the idea that she will always find someone to give her absolution. The exchange makes Kozłowa an active observer and commentator on other people’s intimacy, not simply a speaker for the poor.

Solidarity and Scandal

That role becomes more damaging when women discuss rumors about Jagusia and the Voyt. Kozłowa recounts an alleged story that the Voyt bought Jagusia gold rings, silk shawls, fine linen, beads, and cash. The narration makes clear that she invents details, yet the women accept them as truth. Jagustynka challenges her, asking whether she actually saw any of it. Kozłowa insists that she did and piles on further accusations, including that Jagusia tried to lure Jasio and that he told his mother about it. Her confident performance turns unverified talk into apparent testimony, helping make scandal seem like established fact.

The contrast with her earlier appeal for the hired hands is consequential. Kozłowa can recognize the suffering of people whom prosperous villagers overlook and can confront a priest when a promise of assistance seems empty. Yet, when Jagusia becomes the subject of sexual rumor, Kozłowa helps circulate a story whose details the narrator identifies as lies. Her voice can expose inequalities, but it can also reinforce the village’s moral surveillance of women. In her, communal speech is both a resource for demanding help and a means of intensifying shame.