Milan Kundera's Short Dictionary Of Misunderstood Life

In the Philosophical novel set in Czechoslovakia under communist regime, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, the narrator uses four main characters to portray the philosophical ideas presented. Two characters Franz and Sabina have an extremely complex relationship, including the situation in which Franz is married and Sabina is also the mistress to another man. Instead of including descriptive details about the characters, the author creates a “Short Dictionary of Misunderstood Words” between Franz and Sabina which contains allegories to highlight the problems within their relationship and the theme of love and identity. The two characters have different pasts and understandings of most words such as woman and their philosophies

In the beginning of Kundera’s novel, the narrator states, "If I were to make a record of all of Sabina and Franz ' conversations, I could compile a long lexicon of their misunderstandings. Let us be content, instead, with a short dictionary" (Kundera, 89) Because the author’s characters are so complex, to give specific detail and reason for each of their several personal beliefs and philosophies could continue forever. Instead, for the convenience of the reader he creates a short dictionary of words that are misunderstood between Franz and Sabina. The words however are not to highlight how the characters do not understand the words, but how they understand them so differently. This dictionary gives the reader information about the characters philosophies by describing how the characters lives affected how they feel about these words or ideas. Franz and Sabina are in a relationship with each other however, Franz is married to another woman and Sabina is the mistress to Tomas. The narrator describes Franz’s relationship with Sabina by saying, “[Franz] nourished the cult of Sabina more as a religion than as love.” (Kundera, 126) The diction that the narrator uses suggests that Franz worships Sabina but is not, by his own terms, in love with her. Kundera describes how Franz is more in love with his own idea of Sabina than the actual Sabina,

Kundera’s Dictionary of Misunderstood Words does not highlight how Franz and Sabina do not understand these words, but how they understand these words differently because of their different, personal experiences. In fact, this dictionary does not mention any actual definition of the words, it is possible that there is no real meaning to their relationship. According to the dictionary, the couple does not understand the word “woman”. The author says that “being a woman is a fate Sabina did not chose… to rebel against being a woman seemed as foolish as her to take part in it” (Kundera, 89) She does not believe that her soul and body are connected and does not care that she is a woman; what matters to her is the woman inside of her. Sabina did not truly understand the meaning of a woman, in fact, until Franz says “Sabina you are a woman” (Kundera 89) Franz, however, is married to a woman, Marie-Claude, whom he is afraid to hurt and disrespect because she threatened to leave him if he ever abandons her. Franz does not believe that Marie-Claude is worthy of being called a woman, he does not respect her, but must respect the platonic idea of a woman that is hiding inside of her. The woman that Franz truly respects as a woman is his mother, because of her suffering. The word woman, Kundera says, “did not, in his eyes, signifies one of the two human sexes; it represented a value. Not every woman was worthy of being called a woman.” (Kundera, 89) By Kundera showing how the two have