Dead Class successfully combines horror and humor, pathos and the grotesque. Its moments of horror are reinforced by humor; moments of pathos are reinforced by the grotesque. Without an understanding of the context and meaning of what the actors say, the humor is lost, and the delicate line between pathos and grotesque turns into sentimentality. Writing about Witkiewicz's humor, for example, Artur Sandauer asks: “What is Witkacy's humor about? What does it make fun of? After all, all laughter is laughter at something. To answer this question: Witkacy's humor, foremost, makes fun of realism. […] The second object of Witkacy's parody is the Young Polishness, which he knows well enough as he himself is its product. Finally, Witkacy's third victim, besides naturalism and Young Polishness, is himself.” The Young Polishness (młodopolszczyzna) that Sandauer mentions refers to a turn of the century literary movement in Polish literature that “attempted to revive the religious faith of a bygone age, treating the rites of Catholicism as a source of creative inspiration.” For the poets of “Young Poland,” “even the messianistic pathos of the great Romantic predecessors became an aesthetic impulse.” Due to its pathos and “stylistic extravaganza,” the Young Polishness acquired a pejorative connotation, inviting the scorn and disdain of the emerging avant-garde, with Witkacy and Gombrowicz leading the way. It also embodied the nationalistic, xenophobic impulse that became essential for the interwar period of nation-building, but that also had portentous undertones.