Who’s the bitch in The Bitch? Noble, peasant and dog relations in a short story by Władysław Stanisław Reymont

Abstract

In Władysław Stanisław Reymont’s Suka [The Bitch] the sacrifice of the bitch Fink for her children, the tenderness of the boy’s mother, but also the particular cruelty of the heirs towards the servants and their own daughter, is depicted from the perspective of the peasant child, Witek. The article analyses the representation of human (noble as well as peasant) and animal motherhood in the story. The opposition between the sacrificial behaviour of the actual dog mother and the invectives based on negat­ive connotations with the words “dog” and “bitch” directed at both the heiress and the governess or Witek is examined. They highlight the brutality of interspecies and interclass relations in the text, with the simultaneous presence of a representation of the commonality of experience between animals and ruled groups (in this case peasantry and children). However, the article points out that the animal invectives intended to offend are not supported by the behaviour of the real animal characters.