Research Question: Why does the positive word of lightness eventually become so
unbearable? And why does pleasure come with weighty pain?
為什麼「輕」這個正向的詞在最終會變得如此難以忍受？以及
為甚麼快樂的東西會附帶沉重的痛苦?
Research Argument: Everyone develops his own life value, believing which lightness
is and which weight is. Owing to the difference of individual
life value, lightness (one’s core ideal) may cause conflict and
contradiction while characters are interacting with the one
whose life value is different, and then create burdens and
stresses that become unbearable. In short, it is the difference
of characters’ life values that produce their contradiction,
complex, pressure, and torture.
每個人都有自己的人生價值觀，相信什麼是輕，什麼是重。
由於每個人生價值觀的不同，輕(個人的核心理想)有可能在與
不同人生觀的人互動時造成衝突與矛盾，進而產生負擔與壓
力而變得難以承受。簡而言之，正是由於不同的人生價值值
觀，而產生了人物之間的矛盾、心結、壓力和折磨。
Motif: Lightness and Weight in Life
(Thesis Statement)
Unbearable lightness occurs when a person fails to impose his or her ideals (the concept
of lightness) on another person whose life value is different from his or hers. That is to
say, the ideal pursued by one party is not accepted and recognized by the other one,
which makes them unbearable. Of course, the unbearable lightness is not limited to
people’s relationships but also exists between personal ideals and social values.
Therefore, this paper should first distinguish and discuss the lightness and heaviness in
life that protagonists recognize. From which we can learn that the reason for the
unbearable lightness lies in the four characters’ interaction (contradiction, complex,
burden and pressure) of different life values.
當一個人無法將自己的理想（即「輕」的概念）強加給另一個與其人生價值觀不同
的人時，就會產生「無法承受之輕」。也就是說，一方所追求的理想不為另一方所
接受和承認，這使他們無法忍受。當然，「不能承受之輕」並不局限於人與人之間
的關係，也存在於個人理想與社會價值觀之間。因此，本文首先要對主人公所認為
的生命中的輕與重進行區分和探討。從中我們可以看出，不能承受之輕的原因在於
不同的人生價值觀相互牴觸矛盾所產生的負擔與壓力。
Introduction – Lightness and Weight (Theoretical Framework) insert the form, p.35
Before exploring the lightness and weight of being of four main characters, we should
understand what lightness and weight are. First of all, we need to make a clear definition
about the two concepts.
在探究四個主要人物的生命的輕與重之前，我們要瞭解輕與重是什麼。首先，我們
需要對這兩個概念做出明確的定義。
i. What is Lightness of Being
Lightness of being is a positive phrase as Barnard states; therefore, I would like to
apply his idea as support to prove that lightness represents the ideal in one’s mind.
正如 Barnard 所說，生命之輕是一個正向的詞語；因此，我想用他的觀點來證明
「輕」代表每個人心中的理想。
ii. What is Weight of Being
Lightness is positive; weight is undoubtedly negative as Barnard’s states. Not only
Barnard but also Bayley, Nietzsche and Kundera have the same concept that the
reason causing weight of being owes to heavy burdens. Hence, this chapter will use
their points to prove that weight of being is closely connected with the burden and it is
negative.
輕是正的；正如 Barnard 所述，重無疑是負的。不僅 Barnard，還有 Bayley、
Nietzsche 和 Kundera，他們都有同樣的概念，即造成生命之重的原因是由於沉
重的負擔。因此，本小節將使用他們的觀點來證明生命之重與負擔有高度的關
聯，且它是負面的詞語。
Chapter 1 – Ideals to Aspire
Ideals refer to lightness as the definition in the part of introduction. Each character has his
own ideal in mind which might not be the same as another one. This chapter will focus on
exploring their minds to discover their lightness (ideals).
正如開頭所定義的那樣，理想屬於輕盈。每個人物心中都有自己且和其他人不太一
樣的理想。這一章著重在探索主角們的心靈，以發現他們生命的輕盈/理想。
1.1 The Principle about Love
Tereza’s life surrounds love apparently, and she has a specific principle about love.
This is her ideal in life and also her lightness. Loyalty of love is only possible when
body and soul are one. Therefore, this chapter will start from Tereza’s concept of love
to find her life value of lightness and will further provide textual evidence.
Tereza 的生活顯然是圍繞著愛情展開的，且她對愛情有一個明確的原則。這原
則是她人生的理想也是她生命的輕盈之處。愛的忠誠只有在身心合二為一的時
候才可能實現。本分章將從 Tereza 愛的概念出發，尋找她的人生的輕的價值
觀，並提供文本證據。
1.2 The Balance between Duality
Tomas seems to be the only one who is less extreme when he faces binary choices. It
is the contradictory pressure that he attempts to find the balance between binary
choices; that is to say, he will not be the ultra who always supports one side, but
follows his will (desire). The purpose of this sub-chapter pays attention to the point of
“fidelity to the will (desire)” to further comprehend Tomas’s lightness of being, as
known as life ideal.
Tomas 似乎是唯一一個在面對二元選擇時不那麼極端的角色。因為牴觸的壓力
使他試圖在二元選擇之間找到平衡；也就是說，他不會是一個總是支持某一方
的極端主義者，而是按照自己的意願行事。本分章的目的是關注「忠於意志」
這一點，以進一步理解 Tomas 的存在之輕，即所谓的生活理想。
1.3 Betrayals for Getting Rid of Forms
Speaking of betrayal, we would think of Sabina first. Sabina’s life is a series of
betrayals as Kundera depicts, and it seems that betrayals are the only objective of her
life. The chapter will pay attention to Sabina’s betrayals to comprehend that her
betrayals aims to break stuffy forms, and further to understand that her desire to break
the form is to achieve freedom through a series of betrayals.
一說到背叛，我們首先想到的是 Sabina。正如 Kundera 描述的那樣，Sabina 的生
活就是一系列的背叛，背叛似乎是她生活的唯一目標。此分章將關注 Sabina 的
背叛來理解她的背叛是為了打破古板的形式，並進一步理解她打破形式的渴望
是通過一系列背叛來獲得自由。
1.4 Performing Well
Franz’s behaviors are in accord with social expectations, such as having a reputed job
and being a good husband, since that’s what Franz cares about. To him, the ideal life is
having a good manner of performance in playing any kind of role. Therefore, in this
chapter, I would like to analyze Franz’s roles (professor, husband and dandy boy); he
performs well to attest that all well manners in performance just want to meet the
social expectations.
Franz 的行為是符合社會的期望，比如有一份好工作、做一個好丈夫，因為這是
Franz 所關心的。對他來說，理想的生活是在扮演任何角色時都有良好的表現。
因此，在本分章中，我想對 Franz 所扮演的角色(教授、丈夫以及花花公子)進行
分析來證明所有表現得體的行為都只是為了滿足社會的期望。
Chapter 2 – Burdens to Escape
Life has ups and downs, laughter and tears, lightness and burden. Since the purpose of
this paper is to explore the life values of the four characters, the heavy part of life cannot
be ignored. As long as we have the understanding about characters’ lightness and weight,
it would be easier to explain that the cause of “unbearable lightness” lies in the influence
of one’s lightness on other characters.
人生有起有落，有歡笑也有淚水，有輕鬆也有負擔。由於本文的目的是探討這四個
角色的人生價值觀，所以生命之重的部分不容忽視。只要理解了角色生命中的輕與
重，就更容易解釋「不能承受的輕」的原因在於其對他人的影響。
2.1 The Principle Collapsed
There’s no doubt that Tereza’s love ideal breaks down; that is, body and soul split. She
will not be able to handle any defiance against her ideals because she is a oneprinciple person in love. This sub-chapter will reveal the weight and burden of
Tereza’s life in love.
毫無疑問地 Tereza 的對於愛情的理想崩塌了，即身體和靈魂分裂。她將無法應
對任何對她理想的挑戰，因為她是一個在愛情中堅持單一原則的人。本分章將
揭示 Tereza 在愛情中的生命之重、負擔。
2.2 The Contradiction between Duality
It would be impossible to ask Tomas to decide on one side of duality, and it would
weigh on him, because it goes against his will of striking a balance between the two.
Tomas’s burdens, of course, result not only from Tereza’s romantic ideal but also from
politics: being asked to pick sides. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to reveal
contradiction of duality Tomas encounters.
讓 Tomas 在二元性的一方做出決定是不可能的，這將給他帶來沉重感，因為這
就違背了他想要在兩者之間取平衡的意願。當然，Tomas 的負擔不僅發生在
Tereza 的愛情理想中，也出現在政治上: 被要求選邊站。因此，本分章旨在揭示
Tomas 所遇到的二元矛盾。
2.3 Form Acceptance
It is easy to understand how painful it would have been for Sabina, who has betrayed
forms (tradition or any restriction) all her life, to accept them. Sticking to the form
may not actually occur in Sabina, but it is still haunting there in her mind. The purpose
of the chapter is to explore Sabina’s weight of being through the symbolic meaning of
the bowler hat (traditional act, communist art) and the mind of rejecting the shackles
of marriage when she was proposed by Franz.
很容易理解對於一生都在背叛所有形式(傳統或是任何限制)的 Sabina 來說，要
接受那些形式是多麼痛苦。依附於形式可能不會真實地發生在 Sabina 身上，但
它仍舊存在於她的腦海中。本分章的目的是通過圓頂禮帽的象徵含義(傳統行
事、共產黨藝術)和 Sabina 被 Franz 求婚時拒絕婚姻枷鎖的心境來探索 Sabina 的
生命之重。
2.4 Meaningless Behaviors
As a person who cares about the views of the outside world, Franz aims to cater to the
society or others, which represents his blindness behind the performance. Blindness is
the weight of his life since he says that he would feel very uncomfortable if someone
says something he does not understand in front of him. The chapter will focus on the
terms, such as music, lightness and darkness (TBC), in the novel chapter of “Words
Misunderstood” to discover Franz’s blindness.
作為一個關心外界看法的人，Franz 所做的大部分事情都是為了迎合社會或他
人，這代表了他行為背後的盲目性。盲目性是他生命之重，因為他說過如果有
人在他面前說他聽不懂的話，他會感到非常不舒服。本分章將集中討論「誤解
的詞語」一章中的詞語，如:音樂、明與暗，以發現 Franz 的盲目。
Conclusion
Contrasting the life values of two couples, we will find that their lightness and weight are
opposite. Tereza’s ideal of life, for example, is a burden to Tomas. As a result, her ideal
of love becomes “unbearable lightness” to Tomas. Therefore, we can draw the conclusion
that the cause of unbearable lightness lies in the four characters’ interaction
(contradiction, complex, burden and pressure) of different life values.
對比兩對夫妻的生命價值觀會發現他們的輕與重是相反的。舉例來說，Tereza 的人
生理想對 Tomas 來說是一種負擔。結果對 Tomas 來說，她的愛情理想變成了「不
能承受之輕」。因此，我們可以得出結論，無法承受的輕的原因是不同的人生價值
觀相互牴觸矛盾所產生的負擔與壓力。