Subjectivity of the way we see the world as kundera explores the nature of language
Women
Marie-Claude, Franz’s mother and Sabina are all women, yet they are different, they are seen differently in Franz’s eyes. They represent different things.
Franz value Marie-Claude for her soul, for the ‘woman in [her].’ He worshipped his mother, he believed that she was the ‘Platonic idea of womanhood.’ He feels passionate for Sabina as she is able to satisfy his infidelity.
‘Woman…represented a value’ – the word is subjective to Franz and Sabina, they understand it differently.
‘a low bow’ is a metaphor used to convey Franz’ entrapment by the love of Marie-Claude
Fidelity and Betrayal
For Sabina, fidelity represents being kept captive within a society in which there is no freedom for expression. She detests kitch. The metaphor of artwork is used to portray this. She does not want to paint the repetitive contemporary Communist portraits, one copy like the next. Instead she wants to be different, she does not want to be part of a uniformed group, she wants to have the freedom of expressing her lightness, her unfaithfulness. Sabina’s betrayal takes her away from her original purpose, it puts her life out of perspective and therefore she feels the need to betray her initial betrayal even further. Communism is simply another ‘father’ whom she longs to betray, it is the uniformity of the people and the restriction of her freedom that she loathes. She finds a life without privacy is a life that lacks meaning. Her attitude towards infidelity is an act against kitsch. Sabina’s life is a continuum of betrayal, of her family, the art school, her country and her lovers.
For Franz on the other hand, he feels betrayal is something that is associated with ‘breaking ranks’ and experiencing the unknown. He does not desire for this, he prefers to stay safe, inside a place where fidelity gives lives unity that keeps everyone indifferent from one another and because of this perception towards kitsch, he attempts to ‘charm’ Sabina by his loyalty to his mother. Fidelity is the virtue that enables Franz to feel safe, to keep within his narrow range of values. Yet, this is paradoxical as he cheats on his wife simply because he feels a lack of meaning in his marriage – kitsch is enforced on him.
A clash in perception is thereby created by Kundera.
Music
Sabina do not perceive music the same way as Franz does, she sees music as something that penetrates the privacy of people, diminishing them. Music is just like the Secret Police, constantly surveilling its people, there is no privacy and because of this, there becomes no beauty found in human existence. The repetition found in pop music is like kitsch, Sabina dislikes this, she find it to be too repetitive and as the music repeats, it will get ‘louder and louder’ simply because ‘people are going deaf.’ This metaphor suggests that in a society when everything repeats itself, where there is eternal return, all things will gradually lose their values as people become immune to the concepts imposed by the communist government. There is no uniqueness that exist in repetition, everything becomes the same, becomes the same kind of ugliness, the same process that diminishes the individuality that exist in humanity. Sabina thinks of the days when ‘music [is] like rose blooming on a boundless snow-covered plain of silence.’ Kundera uses a simile to demonstrate Sabina’s love for the unlimited, the wild, boundless places beyond her reach, perhaps, this is the reason for her infidelity, she does not want to be tied down by one man, she wants to experience all men, all things that gives them individuality. This contrasts with Tomas who treats his mistresses all the same, like copies, one after the next.
Franz enjoys music, it provides him with a sense of ‘intoxication.’ He sees it as a way to allow his soul to ‘step out into the world to make friends’, almost like Tereza who uses books to liberate her soul. Like Tereza, he is used by Kundera as a heavy character. Music is his passion, a passion that allows him to live a life in which his soul is buried deep inside his body. Unlike Tereza, he does not let this get in the way, he attempts to block these circumstances out through music and through his infidel ways. As Sabina places influence on Franz, he begins to realise that music can produce noise, the type of noise that ‘drowns out words,’ discarding the necessity of language. Language is no longer precise in the description of human existence, its subjectivity results in meanings of words to be distorted, ‘their content [to be] lost,’ they simply turn into a minute insignificant part of an individual. Here, Franz comes to realisation that words can have different meanings, that human perceptions vary. Though ‘vaguely,’ he understands this, he is unable to accept this because in accepting this idea of being, he feels as though he has lost control of his life.
‘Music [is] the negation’ of language.
Light and Darkness
There is a paradox, in terms of light and darkness, Sabina seems to be the one who values borders and ‘[distastes]…all extremism;’ however for Franz, he values infinity, a pleasure ‘without end, without borders.’
(Previously in Fidelity and Betrayal & Music, Sabina detests limitation of freedom of all kinds, this suggests her dislike for all borders imposed by a communist government. Whereas Franz believes in loyalty, he does not want to ‘break the [ranks],’ the boundaries that prevents the development of his infidelity.)
Sabina believes in lightness because she is able to see it. She does not value darkness, she sees darkness as something frightening, something that is beyond her control, it is a ‘refusal to see’ and confront the external conditions, the fears one may possess. Sabina is much different to Tereza, she does not realise the importance of a soul, instead she focus on the concept of the body, a body that ‘diminishes’ as Franz engages with the darkness is the body of a ‘wreck of a man.’
On the other hand, Franz sees beauty in darkness. This longing for darkness almost provokes the image of Tereza standing in front of the mirror desperately finding her soul, similarly, Kundera may be suggesting that in this darkness, Franz’s soul is able to ‘[grow] in his own inner darkness [and] the more his outer form diminishes.’ He does not feel ‘light’ is beautiful, it is merely something that he is used to, the ‘sun of righteousness…of the intellect’ – everything he is usually associated with. He longs for something deeper, for infinity, for the extremes of human existence.
Light is concrete while darkness is abstract.
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