the unbearable lightness of beingwe are introduced into the basis of the novel and two of the main characters.
The basis of the novel consists of the philosophical view of the way one looks at life. The Idea is that every person has a kind perspective that they see the world through, lightness and heaviness. People who look at the world with a heaviness attached to every event that occurs believe in a repetition of all the 'heavy' events that occur. The people who's perspective is more towards the lightness end of the scale tend to not think through their actions and take events as they are produced.
If we look at this idea through the two characters we are introduced to - Thomas and Teresa we can see Thomas is a man of lightness and Teresa a woman who sees the occurrence of events through the heaviness perspective. These philosophical differences in beliefs show an interesting relationship that is emerging. We can see from the very beginning of the text that as soon as Thomas is influenced by Teresa he sees a heaviness in the world, even if it was a brief moment of contemplation of Teresa "offering him up her life".
