The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is a novel that serves as a philosophical discussion of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s myth of eternal return. Nietzsche’s theory states that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur. In the absence of eternal return, Kundera illustrates the concepts of lightness and weight as foundational to human existence. The author defines lightness as a lack of attachment to the meaning of life, living in the moment without worry for the future. Weight is defined as attaching meaning to events, investing feeling into life. The characters must decide by which philosophy they want to live their lives.
In the novel, dreams take an important
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She tries to be like Tomas, flirting with an engineer with the goal of having a casual relationship. The night after meeting the engineer, Tereza has a dream sequence where she asks Tomas to help kill her. He directs her to a place called Petrin Hill. There, a man with a rifle helps three suicidal people kill themselves. The next morning, she is angry at Tomas for having sent her to this fate. Tereza speaks of this event as if it truly happened. The reader sees that Tomas’ infidelity is pains her greatly to the point that she feels like she is dying, represented literally in her …show more content…
Especially in the case of Tereza, dreams communicate unconscious insecurities and feeling of love, dependence, betrayal, anger and guilt which she might not express. Nightmares haunt Tereza’s sleep, reflecting her body issues and insecurity about Tomas’ adultery. She has become so discontent with her and Tomas’ relationship that she dreams continually of his abandonment and her suicide. Influenced by Tomas’ actions during the day, Tereza 's jealousy is made clear by Kundera’s usage of symbolic