Line #14 Literature/PanTadeusz


1	->O Lithuania, my country, thou
2	->Art like good health; I never knew till now
3	->How precious, till I lost thee.
4	-->-- translation by Kenneth R. Mackenzie
5
6	In 1811, young Tadeusz Soplica comes back home just in time to witness the resolution of the quarrel his paternal uncle and the count Horeszko have about a (not so ancient) castle. He then [[LoveAtFirstSight catches a glimpse of a very pretty girl]]...
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8	The national [[NarrativePoem epic poem]] of both Poland and Lithuania, written by Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), '''Pan Tadeusz''', or [[ShortTitleLongElaborateSubtitle Pan Tadeusz, czyli Ostatni zajazd na Litwie: historia szlachecka z roku 1811 i 1812 we dwunastu ksiegach wierszem]] ("Mr. Tadeusz, or The Last Foray in Lithuania: the story of nobles from year 1811 and 1812 in twelve rhymed books"), tells us of the [[FeudingFamilies struggle between the noble families]] of Soplica and Horeszko and its dissolution, or the titular "zajazd" (which meant one nobleman raiding another's lands, a XVI-XVII century custom, not really practiced anymore in the XIX).
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10	Written in 1832 and published in 1834, the poem was meant to comfort the members of the Polish emigration in France after the trauma of the lost November Uprising. It is set, though, before [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars Napoleon's Russian campaign]] (and at its beginning, a little), which was a huge surge of hope for Poland's restoration (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Vienna the Other Wiki]] for more information on how that turned out for Poland), much like the Uprising was.
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12	Gained a cult following among the Polish intellectual class ("inteligencja"[[labelnote:read]]intelligentsia[[/labelnote]]), eventually becoming the CultClassic of Polish literature.
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14	Adapted into feature films.
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16	Fun fact - the metre of Pan Tadeusz is 13-syllable alexandrine, a rather uncommon one in English (compare Literature/TheFaerieQueene). The 1999 adaptation retains the rhymed dialogues, [[RuleOfCool which doesn't make it any less realistic.]]
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18	An English translation (in prose) can be read [[https://archive.org/details/pantadeuszorlast00mick here]].
19
20	----
21	!! Pan Tadeusz contains examples of:
22
23	* AccidentalPervert: See FullyClothedNudity.
24	* AccuserOfTheBrethren: [[OldRetainer Gerwazy]] hates Jacek Soplica [[RevengeBeforeReason viciously]] for killing his beloved master.
25	* AgentProvocateur: Father Robak, against the Russians.
26	* AllThereInTheManual: The author wrote footnotes explaining in details many aspects of the story and describing some mentioned characters, items and events.
27	* TheAtoner: Father Robak, a.k.a. [[spoiler: Jacek Soplica]].
28	* BadassBookworm: The Count, well, [[IncrediblyLamePun counts.]]
29	* BadassPreacher: Father Robak. He's got a freaking scar across his face! The narrator openly states that his youth must have been spent somewhere else than seminar. Turns out true.
30	* BigDamnHeroes: An [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristically jolly]] monk may seem an odd harbinger of heroic rescue, but father Robak is.
31	* BlueBlood: Set among country gentry.
32	** Though only the Count, a regular aristocrat, could be seen as this. The other characters are either middle-class landed gentry like the Judge and Podkomorzy, impoverished gentlemen like Rejent and Asesor, "grey" gentry (gentry so poor that they lived off farming, the only difference from peasants being their title, coat of arms and the way of clothing) like the Dobrzyńskis, and finally, "naked", that is landless gentry, whose only source of income was serving wealthier lords (Gerwazy to the Horeszkos, Wojski to the Soplicas).
33	** But keep in mind all the aristocratic titles were given by the foreign monarchs (except Lithuania due to GrandfatherClause). Actual Polish gentry valued its equality very highly (i.e. you could have been a "naked" with naught but your sabre to your name, but still take no orders from any "prince").
34	* TheClan: The Dobrzyński family.
35	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The Count, which doesn't stop him from showing some feats of real badassery.
36	* CoolOldGuy: Wojski - he's proficient at hunting, playing instruments, throwing knives, storytelling, settling quarrels, and he's the master of ceremony at the feasts organised by the Judge.
37	** Also Jankiel, being a popular innkeeper, successful trader, sincere patriot and matchless musician. He basically serves as a grandfather figure to Zosia.
38	* CoolSword: [[IronicName Scyzoryk]] ("penknife"), Gerwazy's rapier.
39	* CountryMouse: Praised throughout.
40	* CrushFilter: When Tadeusz ''thinks'' [[MrsRobinson Telimena]] is the girl he's seen before. Romantic HilarityEnsues. PlayedForLaughs even more when the Count meets Zosia and gets dissappointed.
41	* TheDandy: The Count, very, very much.
42	* DeathbedConfession: [[spoiler: Of Jacek Soplica to Gerwazy]], who (finally and with some hesitation) forgives.
43	* DecoyProtagonist: The main protagonist seems to be Tadeusz, the first few chapters seem to confirm this... and after a while we discover that the ''hero'' of this story is actually father Robak a.k.a. [[spoiler: Jacek Soplica, his father]].
44	* DescriptionPorn: Loads and loads. In 1999 adaptation it transforms into SceneryPorn.
45	* DirtyCoward: Major Płut feels confident when arresting hungover gentlemen. When he later gets challenged to a duel, he frantically begs his second-in-command to take up the challenge claiming that, as the commander, he's irreplaceable.
46	* DividedWeFall: Father Robak's opinion.
47	* DrivenToSuicide: PlayedForLaughs along with some other Romantic tropes. After his breakup with Telimena, Tadeusz feels an "unspeakable desire to drown in mud".
48	* DuelToTheDeath: For an affront to his uncle, Tadeusz challenges the Count. It never has the chance to actually happen.
49	* EmpathicEnvironment: While [[spoiler: father Robak]] is dying, there's a rainstorm outside.
50	* {{Foil}}: Telimena to Zosia - an experienced, slightly vampish MrsRobinson who likes all things high and lofty and foreign against a sweet, shy, young homeboding TheIngenue.
51	** Captain Rykov, a decent, honorable Russian officer who wants to release the raiders unpunished and later admits that Poland should belong to the Polish, to Major Płut - a Polish renegade who gleefully speaks about hanging, flogging and banishing to Siberia of the "Polish rebels".
52	* TheEmpire: Russia.
53	* FoodPorn: The feast in the finale, [[DescriptionPorn described in detail]].
54	* ForeignCultureFetish: The Count, to Italy. He also seems to pose as a DashingHispanic.
55	** Telimena, to Russia. Of course, cosmopolitan Russian upper-class, not Russian folk culture.
56	** Averted in case of Tadeusz, the Judge and the whole Soplica family. Telimena ironically [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] that.
57	** According to Podkomorzy, the unconditional admiration for French culture and politics is what led to moral decay and the eventual downfall of Poland.
58	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Zosia, in an [[CallToAgriculture idyllic sort of a way]].
59	%% ZCE * FriendlySniper: Tadeusz in the final battle.
60	* FullyClothedNudity: Having arrived back home, Tadeusz enters his old room only to [[MeetCute walk in on its current resident]] [[TheIngenue Zosia]] dressed only in her nightie - she runs away into the garden.
61	* GoodGuyBar: Jankiel's inn. He sells good drinks at reasonable prices and plays cimbalom better than anyone (supposedly he brought ''Mazurek Dąbrowskiego'' from his travels).
62	** There is a whole literary theory that his innkeeping business is actually a cover-up for underground patriotic conspiracy and he is in fact Father Robak's second-in-command.
63	* GratuitousLatin: With a tendency to CanisLatinicus. Again, this is typical for Polish noblemen in XVI-XVII century. Example:
64	-->'''Gerwazy''': ogłosić Intromisyją Hrabi do zamku, do dworu\Sopliców, do wsi, gruntów zasianych, ugoru,\Słowem, ''cum gais, boris et graniciebus,\Kmetonibus, scultetis, et omnibus rebus\Et quibusdam aliis.''
65	* GreedyJew: Defied. The narrator specifically states that while Jankiel likes making an honest buck as much as the next man, his dealings are so scrupulously straight even the most raging anti-semites around have never accused him of being greedy or a cheat.
66	* TheGrandHunt: Book IV, "Diplomacy and hunting".
67	* HeKnowsTooMuch: Płut. Gerwazy... makes peace with him. Eternal peace.
68	* [[{{Metaphorgotten}} Homeric Simile]]: Frequent. A bit tongue-in-cheek, though, as this is a comedic (as in, ends well and people fall happily in love) story.
69	* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: Jacek Soplica was [[TheAlcoholic driven to drink]] by his beloved's father ParentalMarriageVeto.
70	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Russian soldiers, both in flashbacks and later in the battle.
71	** Although they do manage to kill some Poles in the battle, the most notable being father Robak, they are easily shot one by one by [[OneManArmy Tadeusz]]. He demands a duel lest he [[BadassBoast kill all of them "like wolves in a den"]]. Upon seeing this captain Rykov [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness fearfully]] tells major Płut to do something or there will be no one left alive.
72	*** Even more ironic when we realise that we have trained soldiers against a 21-year-old boy who overslept a hunt a day before (Irony taken up to eleven: the name of their formation, the jegers, comes from a German word "Jaeger" meaning "huntsman").
73	* ImprovisedWeapon: ''A cheese storage''. Yes, really. See verses 7228-7258.
74	* JewsLoveToArgue: This trope could be called "Poles Love To Argue". Almost all of main and secondary plots revolve around people arguing. TruthInTelevision as one of goals Mickiewicz tried to achieve was to [[DividedWeFall soothe bitter squabbles]] among Polish community in France.
75	** Technically [[AvertedTrope averted]]. Jankiel, the only Jew in the story, tries to take the Count's followers' minds off the raid on the Soplica family's manor.
76	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Jacek Soplica, or father Robak, to Tadeusz]]. The son isn't told that until the father's death.
77	* MeaningfulName: The lady who came up with a better way of keeping fowl is named Kokosznicka, z domu Jendykowiczówna [[labelnote:translation]] (of) Hen, de domo (of) Turkey fowl[[/labelnote]].
78	* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler: Jacek Soplica]], as part of his [[TheAtoner atoning]] takes upon himself the surname "Robak" - a worm.
79	* MemeticBadass: Napoleon Bonaparte, for both the narrator and the protagonists. Also a result of AuthorTract.
80	** Also the late competing hunters, Tadeusz Reytan and duke Carl de Nassau are mentioned as this by Wojski.
81	* MilesGloriosus: The Count. He claims to have captured and executed a band of brigands in Sicily. Although he does [[LetsGetDangerous show his prowess]] while dueling with captain Rykov, so perhaps CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass?
82	* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Tadeusz, after Tadeusz Kościuszko (who led the insurrection in 1794).
83	* NarrativeFiligree: Much. The digressions deal with everything from coffee drinking culture to types of mushrooms found in a forest.
84	* NiceToTheWaiter: Tadeusz, upon inheriting Soplicowo, sets the peasants free. The Count is generally liked and respected because he's this, despite his [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} artistic temperament]].
85	** Because newly-freed peasants were subject to heavy taxation, Tadeusz circumvents this by officially adopting all of them (i.e. [[TruthInTelevision admitting them into his own coat of arms).]]
86	* OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: Poland under Russian rule, so of course it's constantly lurking in the background. And sometimes getting out - father Robak's [[RedemptionQuest working on it all the time]].
87	* ParentalMarriageVeto: Of the old Mr. Horeszko against Jacek Soplica, who was keen on marrying his only daughter. [[spoiler: Delivered in a particularily cruel way]].
88	* ThePatriarch: Maciej "The Rod" Dobrzyński, of Dobrzyński [[TheClan family]] is still quite fit and delivers a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to Russian soldiers during the battle.
89	** In 1999 adaptation he's dueling a Russian soldier after [[RuleOfCool putting his glasses on!]]
90	* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: [[spoiler: Tadeusz and Zosia]], set up by Jacek as part of his atoning (the young lady is the daughter of his [[StarCrossedLovers lost beloved]], he's been financing her upbringing).
91	* PicnicEpisode: The mushroom hunting scene in book III.
92	* PilferingProprietor: Subverted; the Jewish innkeeper Jankiel is rather emphatically characterized as honest and generous. He's most directly a StereotypeFlip of the GreedyJew trope, but it's also apparent that he's specifically meant to subvert the expectation that an innkeeper would be a greedy cheat, especially if they were Jewish.
93	* PlanetOfSteves: The Dobrzyński family, where men are named either Bartek or Maciej (their daughters' names are invariably Katarzyna or Maryna). For convenience sake, they use nicknames, usually given after their cool and weird weaponry.
94	* PutTheirHeadsTogether: The first, subtle sign of father Robak's badassery is using this trope to put an end to a row between two characters (in book II).
95	* ARealManIsAKiller: Upon hearing that there is a bear in the forest, the Judge summons all men to [[TheGrandHunt a hunt]] next day.
96	* RealMenLoveJesus: Father Robak is embodiment of this trope.
97	** Before going to the hunt, all participants attend Holy Mass "to Saint Hubert" (patron saint of huntsmen).
98	* RetiredBadass: Wojski, Gerwazy and father Robak (who's quite busy working on OccupiersOutOfOurCountry).
99	* RevengeByProxy: Gerwazy hunts the family members of Jacek Soplica, challenging them to duels (or not - he set fire to a building once, because there was a Soplica inside).
100	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After the death of his master, Gerwazy wages his own private war against [[RevengeByProxy Soplica family]].
101	* {{Romanticism}}: Gently [[ParodiedTrope poked fun at]] (bear in mind Mickiewicz had written some ''very'' [[{{Angst}} lofty Romantic poems]]) - the Count and Telimena are IdleRich Romanticists who keep [[FailedAttemptAtDrama clashing with the prose of life]]. Still, Tadeusz expresses a very Romantic view on esthetics (Polish cloudy skies are more beautiful than the Italian vast plain blue) which is laughed at by the Count and Telimena.
102	* RomanticComedy: The lovey part of the plot is rather lighthearted, involving mistaken identity and other such sillyness.
103	* RomanticFalseLead: Telimena for Tadeusz. The Count for Zosia.
104	* [[ScrewTheWarWerePartying Screw The Raid, We're Partying!]]: And then [[EnemyMine the Russians come.]] Oops.
105	* ShoutOut: Several to Literature/TheIliad.
106	* StillWearingTheOldColors: [[OldRetainer Gerwazy]], whose job used to be guarding the castle gates, still does that when there's no-one to open the gates for.
107	* StoryWithinAStory: Apart from {{Flashback}}s, Wojski tells us some of these.
108	* SquirrelsInMyPants: Telimena suffers this from ants.
109	* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Father Robak, for the Count, in the final battle. It completes his atonement.]]
110	* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: With GothicHorror vibes. The Count, upon learning of how the old mr. Horeszko was killed by Jacek Soplica, proclaims a wish that mr. Soplica should have a beautiful daughter he could be StarCrossedLovers with. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment This tells you all you should know about the Count]].
111	* TokenGoodTeammate: Captain Rykov, on Russian side.
112	* TrueArtIsAncient: InUniverse - the Count wants this castle because it's so gothic-looking (he's a Romantic artist).
113	* UnreliableNarrator: Gerwazy tells the Count the story of his master's death, but he lacks several crucial details, which we learn alongside him later on.
114	* WartimeWedding: [[spoiler: Tadeusz and Zosia]] get engaged in the ending, while he's wounded during the [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Russian campaign]].

Context Literature / PanTadeusz