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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Time, Happiness, and Eternal Return
Lightness, Weight, and Dichotomies
Sex, Love, and Duality of Body and Soul
Words and Language
Power, Politics, and Inequality
Summary
Analysis
Tereza wanted to understand Tomas’s infidelity, which is why she befriended Sabina before Sabina left Prague for Geneva. She went to Sabina’s studio, and Sabina explained her paintings, which belonged to a collection called “Behind the Scenes.” The paintings were realistic but also abstract, like a photograph with double exposure.
The idea of Sabina’s paintings as dual images with something hidden beneath suggests opposites, but it also reflects both Tereza’s job as a photographer and Tomas’s job as a surgeon. Tomas is always slicing something open with his scalpel, both literally and figuratively, to expose what is hidden beneath.
Themes
