Warning Z
Daniel H. Valsecchi
The action begins in a monastery (Saint Basil in Vilnius) which was transformed in a prison. In one
of the cells one prisoner has a dream. Suddenly woke up, and proclaimed the importance of the
dreams, neglected by the saviours. Again he submerged himself in a dream. Angels and demons
fought in order to domain his soul. The prisoner woke up and affirms he is free. He does not
understand where is the origin of such idea. He transformed himself. With a charcoal write on the
wall of the cell: Deo Optimo Maximo Gustavus obitt MDCCCXXIII calendis novembris. Hic
Natus est Conradus MDCCCXIII calendis novembris. [ADAM MICKIEWICZ]
In the first scene, the fhilomathas – prisoners gathered, they waited to be judges by the senator
Nowosilcow. The prisoners sing. Konrad tone up a sing of revenge (Mała Improwizacja). He
imagines he is a prophet and he has a vision. He is an eagle and from the height observes the world,
and tries to see the future. But a raven prevents to do it. They fought, and the raven wins. This cause
a perturbation in the Kordian's mind. In this moment, the prisoners listened the order to return to
their cells. In the second scene, II Konrad – alone in his dungeon – he think about the poetical
genius (Wielka Improwizacja). He fells similar to God, who is defied and at the same time, he asks
for a part of his power in order to redeem his fatherland and he identifies himself with Him. Again
has place a fight between Angels and Demons, in order to capture Konrad. He blame against God,
and he dismay. The Demons attack him but this attempt was prevented by someone, who prays for
his soul.
Taking into account, the multiplicity of interpretations of this work, I show the road, a meaning of
the narrated facts. The centre of gravity is the Nation as a problem. Its anthropological character.
My point of departure will be the «suicide» of Gustavo (Gustavus). It is necessary to make clear
the following fact: the confirmation of a previous suicide, which is narrated in the Fourth Part of the
dram (Antepasados de Vilnius, 1823). He lost his lover, who married another man. The protagonist
commits suicide, but he does not die. As a matter of fact, Gustav is a spectrum, that is to say,
someone who dies for the world (Spectre… non, mort pour le monde, oui! Je suis un pelèrin,
entendez vous?). This, who dies, is an aspect of Gustav, his side of romantic lover, who is not able
to adapt his desires to a rational world, and proclaimed as a normal. The second suicide (Parte III,
Prólogo) is a confirmation. Both facts are the stadium of a conversion. A qualitative jump from
Gustav to Konrad. In other words, the transition from the typical lover rejected to the leader
[meta]politic.
It is possible to conceptualize such parts as a first path, it is true, that the [meta]politic grows the
lover (a failing Gustav). This is only the beginning of a latter profound conversion. It is necessary to
introduce a fundamental idea. The relation between charism as a behaviour of political interaction
of archaic cultures. Between the charismatic phenomenon and the shamanism exist a nexus as a
Psychagog (a famous technique in the Modernity) and simultaneously a recapitulation of shamanic
archaic forces. Now, I try to explain the influence of mesmerism on Adam Mickiewicz and his
literary works. In order to make a combination which shows the essence of the traditional technique
inasmuch is the final product of the Mickiewicz’s concept of Nation.
It is possible to understand as a peculiar form of charismatic relation. Relation is the key word in
order to understand properly the phenomenon. In fact, charism is a relation inasmuch is the fusion
of the 'I' of the followers and the internal 'I' of the caudillo. Mesmerism is another form of fusion.
His creator, Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), was a German who arrived to Paris in 1778, attributing
himself the capability to control and direct the fluid of energetic camps, which according to him
wondering around the Universe.
It is important to mention, that according to Mesmer, its extraordinary qualities, was obtained by
him. In the lapse of three months of [extáticos vagabundeos] around the forests and the nature
induce him to banish all ideas of the society, and to think without words. with this luggage theoretic
wants to conquer Paris, and he acchieved his objective. Mesmerism was the main subject during the
revolution.
Beyond the theoretical standpoints, the decisive factor was the scenography, to create a propituous
atmosphere where the suggestion has a great influence. Mesmerism has its political side. For
Mesmer the invisible energy was able to root out the social problems and to build a new paradise,
where all the people were in harmony with themselves, and with the nature. In this sense, to heal up
the wrong society. The mesmerism - an animal mesmerism - that is to say the influence of a man
with another. To prepare the soil for the French Revolution. To create spaces in order to make
schems of action and reaction, the meetings in forest ... where the people around the tree was tied
with a rope under the influence of mesmerism, was the preliminar attempt to put into action the
psychagogy in a large scale. However, the mesmerism was able to create the possibility of
clandestine crosslinking of glances, to seal the understanding (praxis conspirative). The groups
were reinforced through the mesmeric chains, as an electric circuit. this practises have a egalitarian
side, a communion. these are the components for the revolution and at the same time, the
egalitarism. Revolution, conspiration, reinforcement of ties. As a matter of fact, the bases of a new
fundament of [meta] policy. I can find this parts in Dziady.
The relation of Mickiwicz with the mesmerism, What was it essence? At the beginning, in Vilnius
the animal mesmerism was for educated people. and the faith in de Devil for the peasants. A fashion
behaviour, for the enlightened people. Mickiewicz, of course, was an intellectual. Mickiewicz in
Vilnius showed his interest in Mesmerism during the years 1815-1819 at the university. In a letter of
1822, Mickiewicz requests I.E Lachnicki to cure the daughter of a friend. And from the literary
perspective, the poet embody in the work - Dziady - his faith in mesmerism. His friends showed the
analogy between the ritual of The Ancestors with a session of magnetism. As a typical romantic,
Mickiewicz underlines the importance of his glance and his hypnotic power, not only in relation
with love affaires, but also with the dyad conductor-follower. In the case of the love, I quote this
fact: in 1820 Mickiewicz fall in love with K. Kowalska (the wife of a physician of Kowno). The
relation of Mickiewicz about of first meeting with her. He underlines the theme of change of
glances. (Elle jetait plussieurs coups d'oeil par-dessous son maudit chapeau). Inclusive, in a letter
addressed to a friend in order to depict his passion for Kowalska, the language of Tomasz Zan, and
his theory of love ties: '... les rayons (animaux) son très liés au calorique. Jamais Mme Ko[walska]
ne m'avait fait une si grande impression jusqu'au moment où je l'ai souffler sur le feu sons une
cafetière! Comment cela? Son teinte coloré on plutôt la chaleur esxessive sur son visage...
paraîtrait à un oeil délicat peu sentimentel, mais séduisant... J'ai résolu de ne pas aller chez les
Kow[alski] pendant deux moins. Ce doit être tout simplement le calorique qui émettait les rayons;
que Thomas l'explique.
It must to be say, that mesmerism (magnetismo animal) had a strong intelectual influence in
Mickiewicz. Notwithstanding, I ought to analyse in order to find the conucting wire, and reach to
the main subjet of this article. The meaning of the Nation stricto sensu.
The mesmerism is a 'new' version of the ancient ectasy and the scenography of Mesmer - his
famous therapy) - consists in tie the knees of the patient, touching gently the body with the hands
(magnet) and the high abdomen and the rays of energy, flying from their eyes to the eyes of the ill
man. In this form, Mesmer can be able to produce the transe [epilepsy], he get up in a new live,
without illnesses. There is a jump from the archaic to the modern. Shaman is an specialist to create
the alteration. A real shaman, and an epileptic. The initiation of a shaman is through an illness
(vocación): suffering, death and resurrection.
As a matter of fact, the shaman's ectasy is a symbolic death. This victory is a fight through
experiencies, for instance, carving up the body, renewed organs, ascend to the Sky and talk with the
Gods and Spirits; to descend to the hell and talk with the souls of shamans who died. This suffering
dissintegrates the personality, depression, allucinations, histery. The resurrection is to be health. The
shaman is a special ill, because is able to cure himself. As a matter of fact, is a double process of
desintegration and integration. The disentegration is a symbol of the craving up the body and the
integration, go away of this state, the spiritual victory. However, this process is repeated in every
session. To replay the trance, this is the power of cure. The shaman undergoes one time and his own
trauma in public. This last statement, from the psychological point of view, can be understood
better. The patient replays his initial situation.
Poland was not a simple society. It was a model of brutal simplification, taking into account the
three partitions: Austria, Russia and Prussia. Materia Prima. Poland was malleable. Opression and
Alienation.
Nacht!
👀🎥
The spritual leader - Adam Mickiewicz - the Ancestors (Dziady) is an attempt to create «his» first
concept of Nation, as an spiritual entity. With this information is possible to analyse the first and
the second scene. Shamanism and mesmerism as a Shwerpunkt.
The conversion of Gustav: Gustav-Konrad as a literary sublimation of the poet. The trance
Konrad's(Mickiewicz) begins with the eagle end the raven. Konrad attempts to talk with the bird
(black winds) as a clouds of tempest, long and broad as a rainbow:
'Corbeau! ... qui donc est-tu? Parle! - Je suis un aigle! Il me regarde encore... Il frappe mes yeux
comme d'une fumée qui m'éblouit; il conforme mes pensées, les agite...'
As a matter of fact this is a traumatic fact. An inner fight. In the cell their companions did not
understand:
'Que dit-il?...Quoi!... Que signifie?... Voyes comme il est pâle! ... Calmetoi!...
The vision of the raven upsets Konrad. Before the dismay he exclaims:
'Arrêtez! arrêtez!... Je me suis mesuré avec le corbeau... Arrêtez! Je recuellerai mes pensées, je
achèverai mon hymne, je l'achéverai...'
Konrad wants to put in order his ideas and conclude his song. Konrad knows the language of the
raven. Konrad is an eagle. He knows the secrets of the nature. The magic fly. the difficult path.
In the scene II, Konrad carries out his Great Improvisation (Wielka Improwizacja). During the
Improvisation Konrad has allucinations and outbursts of hysteria.
(Qu'est mon sentiment? Ah! Rien qu'une étincelle. Qu'est ma vie? Un instant. Mais ces foudres qui
gronderont demain, que sont-ils aujourd'hui? Un étincelle. Qu'e est la série entiére des siècles, que
le histoire nous révèle? Un instant...). Theses outbursts perhaps are a signal of the condition of
«initiation» of the protagonist.
As a shaman, Konrad leaves the world and rises to the heaven:
'Je suis homme, et là sur la terre... est resté mon corps!..'
Konrad has changed his identity. He has wings:
J'éntends plus precissement les ailes de mon âme [...] loin d'ici ce corps de boue: esprit, je rêverais
des ailes!... Oui, je m'envolerai!
This fly is a difficult path. Konrad attempts to reach the last reality:
- je m'envolerai de la sphère des planètes et des étoiles, et je ne me arrêterrai que là où le créateur
et la nature'
In the Heaven, Konrad asks God to have power:
Donne-moi l'empire des âmes, Moi, je veux de la puissance, donne-m'en ou montre-m' en le chemin.
Je t'conjure, donne-moi la puissance, une part chétive, une part de ce que sur la terre a conquis
l'orgueil'
The Angels and the Demons quarrel his soul. The Demons jump on Konrad as horses, eagle and
hydra:
Je sauterai sur son âme comme un cheval: marche, marche, au galop, au galop. Coursier, je te
changerai en oiseau; sur les ailes d'aigle, va, monde va monte, vole. Que l'aigle se fassé hydre; je
lui arracherai les yeux: an combat.
The Angels wanted to protect him:
Quel délire! Déefendons-le! Défendons-le! Couvrons-lui les tempes de nous ailes! L'astre tombe,
quel délire!... Ils se perd dans les abímes. Pitié!... repentir...
Konrad wants to liberate his subdued people
(Moi j'aime toute une nation; j'ai saisi dans mes bras toutes ses générations passés et à venir...)
The silence of God (Deus otiosus?), the silence of the enemies of the people.
(...si des millons d'infortunés criant «secours» n'attirent pas plus tes jeux qu'un équation difficile
repondre...)
The silence instigates Konrad to create a community, the hypostatic fusion (moi, la patrie, ce n'est
qu'un)
'Je m'appele Million, car j'aime et je soufre pour des millons d'hommes'
Konrad defies God:
'Reponds... car je tire contre ta nature; si ne la la réduis pas en décombres, j'ébranlerai du moins
toute l'immensité de tes domains'
The Medicine Man - a imię jego będzie czterdzieści i cztery
FINIS...