ULOB- Lightness and weight 2

Summary

1. oedipus
2. communist regime- lack of freedom- Tomas' article
3. The debate of retraction
4. Everyone assumes he will do it
5. The minister of the interior
6. The ministers new idea
7. Es muss sein and being a doctor
8. Beethoven, es muss sein- window cleaner
9. Women and the scapel
10. Lyrical and epic womanizers- giraffe woman
11. sex with giraffe woman and disecting her essence
12. Tomas' lack of beauty with his sexual conquests/poetic memory- rug girl
13. Meeting with the son
14. Tomas does not sign
15. The image from which tomas was born and life is not repeated
16. Rebirth , optimism and pessimism
17. Two years of holiday exhausting
18. The failed holiday in the country and Tereza's dreams
19. Czech life changed
20. Meeting with an old colleague
21. Tomas discovers what Tereza thinks about his hair
22. aggresive stupidity of sex
23. femine calm, bulrush basket and Tereza

Themes

• es muss sein
• repetition
• holiday
• change
• love
• sex
• conquest
• control
• lightness and weight
• duty
• optimism and pessimism

Motifs

• bulrush basket
• oedipus
• scapel and disection of female essence
• poetic memory

Character

Tomas is the only character in this section really. Even Tereza we only meet once. All the characters in this section seem to be 2D to throw off of Tomas. The character S for instance. As his name is simply S this implies that he has a small insignificant role as he is not important enough even to have a real name. None of the other characters have names, they are simply minister, giraffe woman, S, son etc.

Tomas is confused with life and unsatisfied. He seems to ponder if his life is fruitless and how it has become that way. He still is very cold and emotiinless but becomes more aware of this fact.

Place

More imporatantly in this section rather than place in terms of setting (which has not changed as we're still in prague) is place in life which is really what Tomas spends this section exploring; what his place in life is and whether it is the right one or whether its even worth thinking about it.

Narrative Voice

The narrative voice is very different once again in this section. The lacunae become more frequent and Kundera begins to step out of the story again. It seems that Kundera is at his most analytical and philosophical with Tomas. This section is fraught with a light confusion as to whether Tomas has made the correct choices and for the right reasons as Kundera analyses all these decisions and possibilties of others which make the reader doubt Tomas' decisions and decision making abilities.