The Unbearable Lightness Of Being Character Analysis

Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” is a mixed-genre novel that follows the life of four characters in 1960s Prague. It examines various aspects of the characters’ lives through the lens of philosophy. The first two sections of the novel are dedicated to explaining the philosophies through which the reader is told the story. The first of which being Nietzsche’s eternal return, which is a concept that energy and all of existence is has been and will continue to occur for an infinite amount of time. He also called this idea the heaviest of burdens. To contrast this idea, Greek philosopher Parmenides believed that the absence of burden caused man to be lighter than air and thus insignificant to the universe. Kundera’s main idea is exactly what the title says, it is impossible to be completely light. Every character carries a burden. In addition to this point made through the genre hybridity of the novel, Kundera also includes other typical tropes of Central European literature such as the anti-hero, politics, and history.

Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” is a work of both philosophy and

Once again, Sabina is the only character around which this theme is brought to attention. While in Amsterdam, Franz marvels over the Gothic cathedral they are near, but Sabina has a different view of it: “Sabina recalled how after the Communist coup all the castles in Bohemia were nationalized and turned into manual training centers, retirement homes, and also cow sheds… Religion was persecuted by the regime, and most people gave the church a wide berth. The only people in the pews were old men and old women, because they did not fear the regime. They feared only death” (Kundera 41). To her, the communist party represented the kitsch, an idea she tries her best to avoid throughout the novel, partly because it inhibits her