The Unbearableness in The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Attachment versus detachment is one of the themes in Milan Kunder’s famous novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It will be always unbearable if one is very much attached and the other one is very much detached in a relationship. Attachment is portrayed as a burden, a weight that ties individuals down to the mundane aspects of life. Here some characters including Thomas and Sabina consider attachment as a burden and that weight will bind humans to the mundane aspects of the worldly life. The hero, Thomas, a womanizer always tries to be detached from all bonds, even from the love bonds that he is involved in. This leads to some psychological imbalances between Tomas and his wife, Teresa, who is unfortunately very attached to her emotions and to the people with whom she is interacting. 

This novel moves around characters like Tomas, an adulterer and always an example of “lightness” He is free of all heaviness, and attachments and is always free to be mingled with his lovers, without any regret or attachment. The next example of the lightness is one of his mistresses, Sabina, a free-spirited artist. We can witness a kind of attachment or sexual attachment to Tomas. But he cannot recognize it and marries Tereza, the ultimate attached character. She cannot express this same attachment to anyone, even to her husband, Franz. To Tereza, her love is a bond between herself and her husband. On the other hand, Tomas takes this attachment as a kind of burden.

Kundera presents Tomas as a person with extreme detachment, but Tereza with the opposite extreme. Sabina is sometimes attached or sometimes detached. She has some love and attachment to the toying Tomas. This triangular love or connection is happening against the backdrop of the political tumult that happened in Czechoslovakia. When the crisis reached its peak, three of them migrated to Switzerland, where the three of them united once again, but in a different way. Tomas, along with some other women, continues his affair with Sabina. As Tereza cannot bear all these detachment behaviours from her husband, decides to go back to Czechoslovakia. She wants him to make a choice. 

Here the twist is happening in which Tomas understands the fact that he cannot live without Tereza. He comes in search of her. So, at last, he is ready to accept the heaviness of attachment. At the same time, Sabina leaves her husband and decides to stay alone. Meanwhile, her husband, Franz continues to love her up until his death. The other couple, Tomas and Tereza unite themselves in death also, as they have been killed in an accident. 

There is immense scope for psychoanalytic studies are there in this novel. All four characters, including Franz, follow either attachment or detachment types of psyches. Even, Sabina is very much detached from her surroundings and people. She has some unbearable heavy feelings towards her detached lover, Tomas. Franz is a foil to Tomas. Each one of them has to suffer out of his/her inner psyche. Marriage is something that unites two different individuals, but the question of the rules and regulations. The three characters see marriage from different perspectives. To Tomas, Tereza was only a partner whom he encountered throughout his life. To Tereza, it is a kind of serious business. Sabina takes it only as temporary. The perceptions of freedom and the urge to be lightened are visible in those characters. Only Tomas changes at the end. 

It refers to the existential condition in which individuals feel disconnected from the consequences of their actions. This lightness derives from the hedonistic perspective of enjoyment. They want to preserve every moment and at the same time, not at all ready to compromise their demands with anyone’s emotions. 

The novel discusses all the struggles, attachments, and obligations that outline human life. Kundera presents the situation of freedom versus responsibility. The novel proposes the fact that lightness offers liberation from the restrictions of fate and determinism, but it results in the meaninglessness and futility of life. The end of both is as harmful and unpleasant as Kundera portrays and a balance of both can lead persons to peace and fruitfulness of life.

Works Cited:

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Faber and Faber, 2000. 

Gordon, Philip. "The Politics of Forgiveness: Milan Kundera and the Unbearable Lightness of Being." Slavic Review, vol. 50, no. 1, 1991, pp. 1–15.

Radhika A, Assistant Professor of English, Al Shifa College of Arts and Science, Keezhattur.