SOURCE: “Private Pleasures Made Public: Voyeurism in Pan Tadeusz,” in The Polish Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 4, 1998, pp. 419-28.

In the following essay, McQuillen studies Mickiewicz's Pan Tadeusz as both a literal and a figurative translation of the private lives of the characters into public experience. The allegorical adapting of private life into public spectacle is accomplished through the voyeurism of the characters in the poem.

Między stawami w rowie młyn ukryty siedzi; Jako stary opiekun, co kochanków śledzi, Podsłuchał ich rozmowę, gniewa się, szamoce, Trzęsie głową, rękami, i groźby bełkoce. 

Between the ponds a hidden mill was lying As an old guardian on two lovers spying, Who hears their talk, grows angry, starts to clamour, And shakes his head and hands with threatening stammer. 

Pan Tadeusz, Book VIII¹

Voyeurism is an act that violates privacy and reveals—that is...