Samotność przemijania. Synteza biografi czna schyłku życia Elizy Orzeszkowej
Loneliness of the heart and loneliness of thoughts

Summary/Abstract: The article is a study of the melancholic nature of Eliza Orzeszkowa, an attempt to notice Orzeszkowa not as a writer, but an unhappy woman. The main aim is to show the sorrow at different times in her life. Difficult events from her biography were recalled in the article. Paying attention to such issues allows us to better understand the creations of the heroes in her literary works — especially distanced, snippy mothers. Selected works, letters and the diary Dnie were analysed. Orzeszkowa spent almost all her life in the region of her origin. The first painful experiences for her were the remarriage of her mother and then the death of her sister. The arranged marriage with Piotr Orzeszko did not last long. Also, she did not find happiness in her long-term relationship with Stanisław Nahorski. She constantly missed love. Although Orzeszkowa was appreciated as a writer (she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twice), lifelong she felt inferior and sometimes even hated herself. From childhood she experienced states of melancholy. Her house in Grodno (where she was interned) was always full of guests — loved ones, friends, readers, pupils; however, her letters and the diary are the testimony of a deep solitude, and the experience of sadness is in almost all of her works.

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