Part Three- Words Misunderstood

Part Three- Words Misunderstood

Franz has left and Sabina reminisces. She explains emotional link between her and Tomas, the ‘abysses’ between her and Franz. The short dictionary begins. We learn of Franz’ childhood and his mother. Sabina goes to a meeting of all the Czech people and is judgemental towards them all. Misunderstood words. Marie-Claude, the art gallery and relationships. More misunderstood words and Tereza’s feelings towards relationships. Sabina leaves Franz. Sabina moves to Paris.

Key themes running throughout this part are misunderstanding, judgement, opposites, truth and fidelity.

This part is largely set in Geneva and Kundera explores the idea of opposites. Geneva is the opposite of Prague.

Franz and Sabina represent the extremes of heaviness and lightness, Sabina is so light that she betrays him and she reacts to heaviness with instinctive dislike. Franz, the man she almost loves, is supremely heavy. We are shown two couples who both carry one light and one heavy person but each couple choose completely different paths. Kundera explores each of these different paths. Tomas and Tereza decide to stay together; Sabina and Franz part ways. We learn a lot about relationships in this part of the novel and see contrasts between the two couples as they choose their different paths. We learn that Franz and Sabina are incompatible and don’t have a lot of history together, yet on the other hand Tomas understands Sabina and I get the sense that she wants Franz to be more like him. Franz and Sabina each have a history without one another and certain subjects provoke disagreements.

The chapters seem to flow; they link with one another intricately. This leaves me feeling more satisfied as I feel part of the story now. I like to feel involved in a book and I think that now Kundera has pushed the boundaries, he has managed to form a key link between philosophy and narrative.