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Part 4, Chapter 12
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
One of the men approaches Tereza to blindfold her, but she stops him and says she would rather watch. She doesn’t really want to watch; she just wants to delay death a bit longer. As the other man turns to her and raises his rifle, Tereza loses her nerve. “But it wasn’t my choice,” she says. He lowers the gun. If she didn’t freely choose, he says, they don’t have any right to kill her.
Kundera later extends the idea behind Tereza’s dream on Petrin Hill to her sexual encounter with the tall stranger. She doesn’t want to be unfaithful to Tomas—it isn’t her choice—yet she feels forced by Tomas. Of course, Tomas isn’t making her do anything, but because of his repeated infidelity, she needs to see once and for all if there can be sex without love.
Themes
