It is set in Greece and the time frame is 1903. The practice of dowry was widely present in the then Greek society. The story is set in this context. We have a lady (widow) in her fifties who has three daughters and out of which she had managed to marry off only the first with enough dowry. The married daughter after marriage gives birth to two daughters and a boy. The old lady attending her daughter after the birth of the third child (a girl) keeps reflecting about her life and about the life of girls in general.
She asks within herself a question: What are girls for? This is the answer she gets: "She's there to be tortured and to torture us." What can be done to remedy the situation? She asks once again her own self the question and out of her reflection the answer stumbling out is: Kill them when they are young. The grief is short and the killed infants in their turn never grow up to bring forth many more girls.
This idea takes hold of her whole being and transforms her into an Angel of Death. She takes it as God's will to kill whenever and wherever possible the girl children that she could find. The narration is chilly at at times.
What happens to her? Is she haunted by guilt? Is her crime go unpunished? Where is human and divine justice in it? These questions are answered in a racy narration, that is filled with some Greek folk tales, regional proverbs and local beliefs.
The solution for the social evil is never offered. The greatness of Papadiamantis is in presenting the human solution (infanticide) and its consequences for the persons.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
(Anonymous) 2018-11-15 07:39 am (UTC)(link)She asks within herself a question: What are girls for? This is the answer she gets: "She's there to be tortured and to torture us." What can be done to remedy the situation? She asks once again her own self the question and out of her reflection the answer stumbling out is: Kill them when they are young. The grief is short and the killed infants in their turn never grow up to bring forth many more girls.
This idea takes hold of her whole being and transforms her into an Angel of Death. She takes it as God's will to kill whenever and wherever possible the girl children that she could find. The narration is chilly at at times.
What happens to her? Is she haunted by guilt? Is her crime go unpunished? Where is human and divine justice in it? These questions are answered in a racy narration, that is filled with some Greek folk tales, regional proverbs and local beliefs.
The solution for the social evil is never offered. The greatness of Papadiamantis is in presenting the human solution (infanticide) and its consequences for the persons.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2018-11-15 07:42 am (UTC)(link)