Sentencje pana Zagłoby w Trylogii Henryka Sienkiewicza

Abstract

Jan Onufry Zagłoba, the character in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy, is an individual using colourful, juicy language, full of various expressions, and facetious sayings. The characteristic feature of the speech of this individual is his striving to formulate judgements and thoughts in an aphoristic way. Therefore, Zagłoba’s language is a repository of the so-called “golden thoughts”. The sayings of the jovial nobleman are thematically variegated, and therefore, they have been divided into several general groups, and presented and discussed in this article. Furthermore, the meaning and the role of those thoughts in the Trilogy has been shown. First and foremost, those maxims contain much information about the characters of the novel, thus giving Sienkiewicz’s “flawless knights” a human dimension. They lighten up the bleak images of battles with sparks of humour. They bring warmth and joy to the pages of the novel. However, they also show Zagłoba’s face full of reflection, a derider, drawing attention to the extraordinaiy richness and complexity of this character. Sir Onufry’s sayings enrich Sienkiewicz’s work, interlacing its contents with humour and affirmation of life, wisdom and reflection. They are an original, fantastic lesson of philosophical and moral issues. To a great extent, it is Mr. Zagłoba’s aphorisms which give Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy the universal and timeless nature, and moreover, being full of warmth and wisdom, they constitute and apology of life, they strengthen and warm up human hearts.