The Unbearable Lightness of Being - It is Better to Carry a Heavy Load

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being - It is Better to Carry a Heavy Load

"Is it better to carry a heavy load on your shoulders, or cope with the unbearable lightness of being?"

Phillip Kaufman coupled brilliant film techniques with wonderful acting to put together the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being based off of Milan Kundera's novel of the same title. The film is set in Prague during the spring of 1968. At this time the Russians are still trying to exercise their communist control over Czechoslovakia, and Prague is a city filled with political uprisings and violent outbursts from the Czech people. Within the movie and the plot, Kaufman and Kundera want to help us answer the question, "is it better to carry a heavy load on your shoulders, or cope with the unbearable lightness of being?" The answer comes to us through watching the love triangle that is built around Sabina, Tereza, and Tomas. Sabina is our example of the individual who would rather cope with the unbearable lightness of being than deal with all of the maladies of everyday life. Tereza on the other hand fully accepts the world around her, whether it is pleasant or not. The movie uses their artwork, their concern for political issues, and their relationships with Thomas to contrast Sabina and Tereza.

Sabina represents the individual who would rather ignore reality and cope with the wonderful delusion that replaces it. Her relationship with Tomas is the first example we are presented of Sabina's inclination to avoid the truth. In the beginning of the film Tomas is shown to be what we would call a player. The very first scene of the film is of him leaving his doctoral responsibilities to join one of his nurses in the doctors' quarters to have sex. It ...

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...mas and choice to carry the burden was the better choice being as that Tomas chose to stay with her than with Sabina. In the end, when the couple is removed from the city and they live in their own little isolated world, we see the extent of their happiness. In the very last scene of the movie, Tomas and Tereza look at each other, and each confesses that they are completely happy. Their happiness is an affirmation that it is better to carry a heavy load on your shoulders than to cope with the unbearable lightness of being. All you have to do is hope that one day the load gets lighter as it did for Tomas and Tereza.

Work Cited

Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Lover's Story. Trans. Henry Michael Hiem. New York: Harper, 1984.

Work Consulted

Banerjee, Maria Nemcova. Terminal Paradox: The Novels of Milan Kundera. New York: Grove, 1990.

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