The Unbearable Lightness of Being Update 1

Quick overview of the book so far:

This book looks at the lives of 4 people and how they live their lives with either a lightness of being or a weight holding them down. It also talks about how sometimes the people who are living weightlessly, are not happy with the lightness; hence "the unbearable lightness of being."

So for the first update, I am going to introduce you to the four main characters and tell you how they live (with a lightness or with a weight) and how that has affected their life so far.

Tomas - Tomas is from the Czech Republic and he is definitely living with a lightness of being, but his lightness, at first, is not unbearable. He enjoys his life as the ultimate bachelor and never wants to get married. He meets girls and he sleeps with them and then he never sees them again or they become one of his mistresses that he sees every once in a while, but he never falls in love with any of them. But when Tomas meets Tereza he falls in love wither her and eventually marries her, but he still sees the other women. Tereza finds out and he tries to tell her that it doesn't matter that he has all these mistresses because she is the only one he loves, he just likes to feel the lightness that goes with not carrying about who he sleeps with. But his love for Tereza is so much that the lightness he feels starts weighing down from because of Tereza's unhappiness with his lifestyle. Tomas cant give up his mistresses, but he also cant give Tereza, and the lightness he felt so good in before, becomes unbearable and guilt ridden.

Tereza - Tereza is also Czech, and falls in love with Tomas because he was kind to her and she saw a way out of her small town life with her unbearable mother in him. Tereza does not have a light life, she carries weight with her. She knows the lightness because her mother lived with that lightness and she hated it. She found that lifestyle uncomfortable and crude and she thought it made no one special and made everyone the same and just a body. She wanted to have a soul and be herself; she wanted to be special to someone and that's what she thought she cold be to Tomas. The weight she carried was trying to force her soul and her specialness passed all the sameness of everyone. Tereza hates that Tomas cant give up hi mistresses for just her but she doesn't think it would be fair of her to make him stop. She tries to understand his lifestyle and even has a one time affair to try the light lifestyle, but she hates it because it takes all the love and passion and kindness out, and makes the sameness more real and obvious.

Sabina - Sabina is Tomas' favorite mistress who also lives in the same way as Tomas; carefree and light, with many different men. She lives happily with the lightness for a while, but eventually, when her 'main man', Franz leaves his wife for her, she feels like that being with him for real would threaten her light lifestyle and picks up and leaves. She realizes she has nothing of her past left after hearing of Tomas and Tereza's deaths and she cant stand the lightness, the nothing she feels. She has nothing to live for and is not sure what to do and sometimes wonders what her life would be like if she had stayed with Franz.

Franz - Franz has been married for 20 years and never cheated on his wife. He never wanted to betray her because she had said she would kill herself if he ever left her. He also has an 18 year old daughter that is just like his wife. Franz has lived with the weight his life and finally he meets Sabina and he loves her. He is afraid to hurt his wife so he keeps his affair very secret, but when he is with Sabina her lightness rubs off on him and he feels better. Eventually the weight of his wife his too much and he tells her about the affair and leaves her for Sabina, but when he tells Sabina, she leaves and Franz is by himself. At first he becomes depressed, but then he feels the lightness of his life without his wife or daughter and he enjoys his life of new found lightness. He even meets a girl who loves him and he takes care of her, but in a light, carefree way.

I think that the people in the book who had a lightness find it unbearable when they realize they have nothing important in their lives or that they could have something important. I think Tomas is just not sure yet whether he wants to give up his lightness because he doesn't know if he will enjoy the weight of being faithful husband. Franz is happy with the lightness he fells because he has been living his whole life with a weight and it felt good to not have to carry it around. When he found the girl who loved him, he also found a middle ground between the lightness he just loved and also a small weight that gave him meaning a something to do, like he was used to his whole life.