The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The narrator recalls that according to Genesis, God gave man dominion over all other creatures. The narrator thinks it more likely that man created God to justify the dominion that “he had usurped” (286). Tereza and Tomáš, employed now on the collective farm, have to learn new patterns of existence. Tereza spends her days with the cows, feeling a love for them that is out of place in the countryside. When one of her neighbors notices Karenin’s limp, Tereza explains that her dog has cancer and bursts into tears. The woman is shocked and tells Tereza not to cry over a dog. Tereza realizes that in the country, people must reserve their sympathy and act as though they have dominion over nature: Were they to cry real tears over every animal killed, they would never eat and would have no livelihood. The narrator then tells a famous anecdote about Nietzsche, who once came upon a man beating his horse, threw his arms around the animal, and wept. Like Tereza, his empathy for animals divided him from his rural neighbors.

Tereza finds Tomáš reading a letter, which he immediately hides. She is sure that he does not have a mistress in the village and wonders if there is a woman in Prague with whom he shared such a deep bond that the two now correspond. Karenin grows sicker and sicker and the two argue about how to spend their last remaining days with the cherished dog.

Tereza’s idyllic characterization of the countryside is, to the narrator, a reflection of the way that paradise is described in the bible. The narrator argues that humans long for idyllic settings because they long for a time when man was “not yet man,” when he had yet to be cast out of the Garden of Eden (296). He describes Tereza’s revulsion at bodies in general and especially at her mother’s immodesty, but notes her lack of disgust about caring for Karenin when the dog menstruates. He theorizes that this is because Karenin, as a dog, was never expelled from paradise. She does not reflect the body-and-soul duality that vexes Tereza. Tereza realizes in the countryside that her love for Karenin is better than her love for Tomáš. Her love for Karenin is selfless and beautiful in a way that love between two people cannot be. She accepts Karenin without trying to transform the dog into something it is not. This, too, is rare in love between two humans.

Karenin has grown so ill that the pain is unbearable, and Tomáš and Tereza decide that a merciful death is the kindest option available to them. Tomáš administers the injection, and they bury their beloved dog.

Tereza has a vision in which Tomáš sits at his desk holding a letter. It instructs him to appear at a nearby airfield. She insists that she accompany him. When they arrive, they board a small plane and sit down next to each other. Although she had initially felt fear, she now feels nothing but love for Tomáš. When the plane lands and they exit, there are hooded men waiting. One of them shoots Tomáš. His body shrinks, becomes a tiny object, and then runs away. One of the men chases the object, grabs it, and gives it to Tereza. It is a rabbit. She then finds herself in Prague, wandering the streets with her rabbit. She easily finds her childhood home. She enters it and finds a table, a lamp, a bed, and a butterfly. She sits peacefully holding the rabbit.

Tomáš is sitting at his desk reading a letter. He tells Tereza that it is from his son, Simon, who periodically writes to him. Tereza thinks Tomáš should arrange to meet Simon, but Tomáš is hesitant. He is worried how Simon feels about him, given their history. Tereza laughs that off and insists that he should reach out to his son.

She feels guilty for the role she’d played in his return to Prague from Zurich and worries that she’s ruined his life. When she brings this up, he brushes it off and tells her that he has been happy in the countryside. The two attend a party at an inn that night with the chairman of the collective farm. Everyone dances. After the party, they go upstairs to their room at the inn. Tereza sees a table, a lamp, a bed, and a butterfly flitting around the room’s bare light bulb.