Part Four- Soul and Body 2

Part Four- Soul and Body 2

Tereza and Tomas after their move back to Prague. Tomas listens to a radio program sponsored by the police. Tereza's fear of the body continues and she puzzles over the supposed connection between soul and body. She wishes she could feel light about her body, and behave the way Tomas does. No longer allowed to take photographs, Tereza starts work at a hotel bar. To try to release herself from her fears of the body, Tereza begins flirting with men at the bar. Tereza asks Tomas to help her. He directs her to Petrin Hill, where a man with a rifle helps three suicidal people kill themselves, and then turns to her. She tells him no, and that it wasn't her choice, and leaves the hill understanding that Tomas sent her to die. Tereza decide to go visit the engineer and they have sex. Tereza notices an injured crow she tries to save it, but cannot; she watches it die. The bald customer that gave her a hard time before calls her a prostitute and hints that people are watching her. The ambassador confirms that he is in the secret police, and after their conversation Tereza is convinced that the engineer was in the secret police too, and that she has been set up for blackmail. Tereza and Tomas drive through Prague. It has changed and Tereza dreams that park benches float by in the river, and realizes the city is bidding her farewell. She wants to die.

Key themes from section four include death, fear, paranoia, the human body, Lightness and heaviness and the soul and body.

The setting is Prague, yet it has changed. Most live in fear, particularly of the secret police; this causes paranoia, especially for Tereza. This section contains a greater volume of narrative and is more emotive.

Throughout this part there is a distinct indecisiveness between Tereza’s reality and dreams. She seems to be loosing her mind. There seems to be a separation in the couple in this section, they do not communicate. Kundera emphasizes Tereza's inability to deal with lightness of being. Tereza cannot put a light interpretation on her one-night stand with the engineer and at first she imagines herself in love with him, then she decides the engineer was a spy, and thinks of sex as an act of terror inflicted on her. In the end it makes her want to die. We experience events as Tereza experiences them. Tereza is paranoid.

I have become more wary of Tomas. He seems so much more sinister than before, after he sends Tereza to Petrin Hill. He has changed and again opposites are shown as Tomas is emotionless in comparison to Tereza.