Milan Kundera Quote
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a philosophical novel by Czech playwright Milan Kundena. It was published in 1984 and is set in Prague, during the period of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact (1968). Originally written in French, however, after its English translation it was extolled by Elizabeth Hardwick as "a work of the most daring mastery, originality, and richness."
The author used narrative prose to capture a hard love story in which he subtly exposed the controversy of life as a couple and the effects of the communist tendency of the moment. Thanks to the accurate use of literary resources and the well-conducted plot by Kundena, over the years, the work has become an obligatory reference of existentialism. As a result of its impact, The Unbearable Lightness of Being received the Los Angeles Times Literary Award in 1984.
Summary from The Unbearable Lightness of Being
lightness and weight
Tomas was a divorced Czechoslovakian doctor who lived in Prague. In the failed marriage, which lasted two years, a boy was born. Tired of conflicts over visits, he gave the mother full custody. For nearly a decade of singleness he had many lovers, until he met Teresa. She was a waitress full of charisma that immediately caught him in an intense infatuation.
However, despite the commitment, the man never contemplated leaving his adventures, nor abandon his closest lover: the liberal artist Sabina. In fact, the latter was the one who got Teresa a job —after Tomas asked her to do so—. That was how the doctor's official girlfriend managed to go from being a waitress to being a photographer for a magazine.
After maintaining a vertiginous relationship for almost two years, finally —and to try to curb Teresa's jealousy a little— they got married. At those moments the political environment became very tense after the arrival of Soviet forces to the Czech capital. During the unstable situation, Tomas received an invitation to work in a hospital in Switzerland. The doctor, without thinking, he accepted and left with his wife and his dog — a cross between a Saint Bernard and a German shepherd named Karenin.
The wanderings of the libertine man ceased not even in the calm of the new place that welcomed them, and Teresa was not stupid, she knew everything very well. The woman, without hope that the betrayals would end, left the doctor and returned to Prague with Karenin. After five days, Tomas felt an immense emptiness, and, affected by the absence of his wife, he decided to quit his job and return home.
The soul and the body
Teresa she kept up the habit of constantly looking at herself in the mirror, she had never felt comfortable with her body. Seeing her reflection, she condemned herself looking for some resemblance to the woman who had been the protagonist of her childhood traumas: her mother.
This last She had several suitors in her youth. Nevertheless, became pregnant with the less prosperous, and, after Teresa was born, she was forced to link her life with him.
Often, the bitter woman rubbed Teresa who had been conceived in a slip, always marking him as a terrible mistake in his life. The terrible psychological torture the girl was going through changed for a while, when her mother left home to go with a swindler.
After a few years, Teresa's father died. The tragedy forced the young woman to move to the place where her mother was, who had already conceived three children by the man she had eloped with.
In the new niche, the poor girl returned to the days of submission, humiliation and contempt from her mother. The evil woman forced Teresa to abandon her studies to work as a waitress He was just 15 years old.
Despite all the mistreatment, Teresa insisted on earning her mother's love. To achieve his mission, he was in charge of the household chores and the care of his brothers. Nevertheless, all his efforts were useless. Sometimes the disturbed woman would prowl around the house completely naked, mocking Teresa's embarrassment. This caused traumas in the young woman, who already felt rejection for her own figure and she was full of insecurities.
Such was the rejection, oppression and humiliation that her mother made her experience, that Teresa decided to leave home and take refuge in the arms of Tomas. At first she was happy, she wanted to be the only body he wanted, but the constant infidelities brought her down every day. She was often tormented by nightmares of naked women next to Tomas, seeing herself as one of the crowd.
Although Teresa always believed herself inferior to other women, this was different on one occasion: one day she visited Sabina for a photo shoot. In the meeting both ended up portrayed naked. For Teresa, being behind the camera lens made her feel protected and free from complexes.. There, she stood side by side with Tomas's lover, intoxicated by her nudity and mentally directed by her husband.
However, this experience did not affect Teresa's life, whose sadness grew day by day. And she was not for less, well To Tomas' heavy promiscuous past was added receiving daily calls of a woman who was asking about him. The poor devastated wife couldn't take it traditional and decided to return to Prague.
misunderstood words
On the other hand, Sabina got involved with Franz, a teacher who lived and taught in Geneva. This man had been married for more than 20 years to Marie Claude - with whom he had a daughter - however: he never loved her. For the teacher, falling in love with the artist was easy, he was captivated by her ideals and his daring way of acting.
While he was kind and compassionate, together they were unable to connect in the way he longed for. Sabina. They had adventures and sexual encounters in every possible place; They visited 15 European hotels and one North American hotel. There came a time when she felt on the brink of her emotions, and he refused to be in a deep relationship contrary to his ideology.
Milan Kundera Quote
Due to the situation, the woman was forced to leave Franz. To get away, she traveled to Paris and then took refuge in the United States. Franz, to deal with the breakup, began a friendship with certain freedoms with a young student. However, he could not forget his beloved Sabina for a day.
The soul and the body
Because of their jobs, Tomas and Teresa they handled different schedules and hardly coincided at home. She had to go back to her old job as a waitress after she was fired from the magazine. In that place, customers constantly flirted with him, something that never displeased him. It was like that met an engineer, after some talks, managed to captivate her.
Teresa decided to be unfaithful to Tomas with that man. However, after the meeting was full of doubts and concerns. Her uncertainty grew because the engineer never came back to the bar, and, after comments from clients, Teresa began to suspect that it was a plot by the authorities. She also thought it was a setup to blackmail her husband with a photo.
After a visit to the field with Tomas, and overwhelmed by doubts, Teresa contemplated the idea of moving and say goodbye to Prague.
The lightness and weight
Tomas was carried away by his subversive inclinations and wrote a harsh political critique for a magazine of intellectuals. Immediately, raised alarms in the authorities of the new regime. Because of this, he was persecuted and extorted to expose the complicit publisher of the publication, but he refused.
As a consequence, he had to abandon his medical career and became a window cleaner. Tomas returned to his adventures: in this new stage of his life he spent it conquering women and touring Prague. During the following days he dedicated himself to looking for differences between each one of her lovers. However, he could never erase his feelings for Teresa.
In a short time, a protestant redactor—through a trap— reunited Tomas with his sonwho I haven't seen for a long time. He presented himself as a defender of the persecuted, and asked him to sign a letter to the president of the Republic in order to request amnesty for political prisoners. At that moment, the doubt invaded the doctor, many things went through his head, so decided to decline, because everything seemed suspicious.
On a night when a stomach ache and erotic dreams took over Tomas, a suggestion from Teresa surprised him. His wife, seeing him preoccupied by so many unpleasant encounters, He suggested moving to the country. At first it seemed crazy, however, after thinking about it, Tomas did not dislike the idea.
the great march
After a decade passed, Sabina settled in the United States. There he dedicated himself to caring for an elderly couple, whom he adopted as a family. In this new beginning away from Prague he continued to sell his paintings and got rid of all material prejudice in order to live more simply and lightly.
Parallel, Franz kept the artist in mind —despite being married—, he thought about her constantly. One day a friend invited him to participate in a protest march, there He was the victim of a robbery and was seriously injured..
Woke up in a medical room in Geneva with the desire to see Sabina, but at his side was only his wife Marie Claude. There, convalescing, unable to move or speak, he closed his eyes and died clinging to the memory of his lover.
Karen's smile
For its part, Tomas and Teresa managed to retire to the countryside in search of peace that they had not had for the last few years. They moved away from the disloyal life of a couple they shared in Prague to surrender to a mutual and healthier union. In that place, she dedicated herself to raising cattle and reading, while he confessed to her that he was really happy.
after a while they had to face together el pain see cancer patient a your faithful companion Karen's. The animal could not bear the disease and passed away.
The couple accepted the death of their precious pet as the closure of the adversities of the past. From there, they were oriented to give each other all the intimacy and fidelity that they lacked in previous years.
About the Author
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera was born in 1929 in the Moravia region of the Czech Republic. His secondary studies were in musicology and musical composition. Then, entered the Charles University in Prague in the career of literature and aesthetics. However, after two semesters he transferred to the Film Faculty of the Prague Academy where he graduated in 1952.
He has worked as a novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. In his carrer It has 10 novels, among which his works stand out: The joke (1967) The book of laughter and forgetfulness (1979) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984).
The way in which the author narrates his novel about the truths or how a relationship is lived matches the way that in itself it is not easy, being with someone else, more if you know how to understand and understand that person
I'm going to reread everything.