Underneath the Wedding Veil: Class Conflicts in Wyspiański’s "Wesele"

Abstract

The article discusses the descriptions of social class strife included but masked in the plot and characters’ construction in the famous Polish play Wesele
(The Wedding) by Stanisław Wyspiański. According to the author of the article, the scenes depicting the wedding customs and party are inherently a façade that attempts to mask class conflicts. The class tensions appear consequently in dialogues throughout the play (especially in its climax) and with regard to several different characters. Their role reversals consist of extrinsic signs, which suggest that they are playing the roles and not actually fulfilling them. Thus, the symbols they use in the play are merely costumes that mask their actual backgrounds, drawing for the readers or audience of Wyspiański’s drama the line between appearance and reality.