A successful surgeon and womanizer. He embodies "Lightness" but is constantly pulled toward "Weight" by his love for Tereza.

The brief period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia.

Tereza’s struggle to reconcile her physical self with her spiritual identity, often looking in the mirror to find where "she" begins.

Tomas's wife. She represents "Weight." She views sex and love as inseparable and suffers from Tomas’s infidelities.

If life happens only once, it has no weight. Decisions don't matter because there is no "Eternal Return." This leads to freedom, but also a profound lack of meaning.

A breakdown of the (the dog Karenin, the bowler hat) The political commentary on Communism and the "Great March" Which direction should we go?