tULoB part five - lightness and weight

The focus is mainly on Tomas in this part of the novel

Tomas is asked to sign a statement retracting his published work about Oedipus, and, when he refuses on the basis that he doesn’t want to lose his colleagues respect, he is sacked, and eventually ends up as a window washer. Even as a window washer though, he is treated differently, people request him specially because they know that really he should be a doctor, and he gets called out often to places when the people there don’t want their windows washed, they just want to show their support for the headstrong doctor. He starts to use his window washing job as another way to meet new women and mistresses. One day Tomas is called out to a house, and finds his son and the editor with the big chin inside. They ask for Tomas’ signature on a petition asking for the better treatment of political prisoners. He eventually refuses, to the disappointment of the others, but it turns out to be a good thing, as the names of the people who did sign are published in the paper, along with slanderous attacks on them. Tomas starts to realise that he is tired, mentally and physically, and that he cant “be on holiday” forever, as this is what the window washing was to him. Only now, eighteen chapters into the part, does Tereza come in again, which I guess shows how far apart they’ve grown. She is having another of her nightmares, this time where she is buried and dead, and Tomas comes to visit her occasionally, but she knows her is cheating on her, and loses sleep over it, thus making her dead body even more unattractive to him. This is the first time Tomas expresses his feelings for Tereza in a clear way, at least to me, when it says “Yes, that is death: Tereza asleep, having terrible nightmares, and he unable to wake her.”, which shows that he does care, a lot. Time passes, and soon Tomas finds that his novelty as a window cleaning doctor has worn off, people no longer wish to be reminded of what happened to him. He starts to get stressed, and his stomach starts acting up on him, one night he finds he’s run out of medication, and he has to go without. When Tereza comes home and finds out that this has happened, she starts talking to him to keep his mind off the pain, and suggests that they move to the country. Tomas then asks Tereza what’s wrong with her, and why she’s acting so distantly from him, and she finally tells him how she’s had to put up with the smell of other women in his hair every night for a long time now. After this, Tomas starts to wonder why sex and love are linked, as it seems to him to cause so many problems. They decide to move to the country, which is sort of showing how much Tomas does love Tereza, as he’s willing to give up his affairs and mistresses for the sake of Tereza’s happiness, and possible sanity.

Themes

• Repression/suppression
  
• Status
  
• Oedipus
  
• Words and their meaning and power
  
• Philosophy
  
• Dreams, both Tereza’s and Tomas’
  
• Love and sex
  
• Politics
  
• Contrasts and opposites
  
• Self image, and how people perceive others
  
• Death
  
• Senses
  

Characters

• Tomas is the main focus of this part, and the reader follows his new life as a window cleaner. He sees his current occupation as a window washer as just a holiday, as it’s not his real calling, he still thinks of himself as a surgeon. Tomas is both heavy and light in this section of the book, he still acts quite carefree, flitting from one woman to another, and not seeming to care too much about his job lose. But, on the other hand, towards the end of the part he seems to start getting stressed and down, and his worry for Tereza shows a heavy side to his personality that hasn’t been seen by the reader before. I was also unsure if Tomas’ decisions not to sign the petition or retract his statement count as heavy or light, as both have features that show both lightness and heaviness.
  
  
• Tereza does not feature much in this section of the book showing how far apart she and Tomas have grown. Part four sums up how she feels about the things happening at this time of the novel, but there are some things mentioned here that weren’t before, perhaps showing that she either doesn’t want to remember of them, or she doesn’t find them important. An example of this is the dream she, where she is dead and buried, and although Tomas still comes and visits her, and tries to make her see, she still knows that he is with another woman, and therefore she doesn’t feel good enough. Does this dream mean that Tereza feels dead, to herself or Tomas, or perhaps both, I’m not entirely certain. Is she scared of death, or would she welcome it?
  

Extra things

Reading this raised a question, the book never states whether or not Tereza had dreams like she does before she met Tomas, and whether or not she has creepy dreams about other things as well? Is Tereza slightly mad (I didn’t want to use this word, as it gives the word impression, but I couldn’t think of a better way to explain it)? Or perhaps just unstable? And was this caused by her childhood, the situation in Prague, or just Tomas alone? Tomas also seems to be almost a father to Tereza at some points, and she perhaps a mother to him as well, they both rely on each other, in different ways, this kind of links in to the Oedipus theme