Przymiotnik piękny i jego derywaty jako klucz do hierarchizacji wartości w prozie artystycznej Cypriana Norwida

The aim of this paper is to present the meaning of the adjective beautiful and its derivatives in artistic prose of Cyprian Norwid and to establish how the author approaches the semantic field of the word beautiful. Cyprian Norwid through the use of the adjective beautiful and its derivatives, evaluates the elements of described world in different ways, which allows one to see the hierarchy of values. At the top of the hierarchy there are transcendent, moral and cognitive values, followed by aesthetic and vital values and then finally perceived and instrumental values. The poet also emphasizes the interdependence between these values. The most commonly used method of valuation of various objects and phenomena is to put them together in a way that comparison and evaluation is possible. Within the created hierarchy of values, there can be observed various displacements, which consist in raising the rank of some, and lowering other beings. These shifts usually result from the confrontation of the hierarchy of values of the narrator and the general public. Over the years Cyprian Norwid in all of his works develops a coherent concept of beauty, based on the belief that beauty has its source in God, is associated with truth, and is born of love, and thus becomes immortal.