The Unbearable Lightness Of being

The alienation of Tereza from her body

In Milan Kundera’s, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tereza faces a conflict in which she feels alienated from her body. This result from a quantity of reasons such as her interactions with certain people, how she acts in these situations, and her inability to picture and create her own self-identity. Throughout the chapters, we see Tereza slowly decay from her moral roots and seek to find a different measure of pleasure that will give her happiness in life. Despite her adventures we see the conflict that her mind is not in agreement with her body. Two theories explain why Tereza must go through such chaotic processes in order to find happiness. These theories are self as choice and self as body, self as consciousness. The theory of self as choice states that we are who we are by our actions; there is no current self, only a self that is built up by our actions, experiences and a future self in which we intend to be. We see this theory being shown in the scene where Tereza decides to act neutral to the engineers’ demands for her to strip off her clothes. Because she had decided to neither take off her clothes nor keep them on, she exemplifies her inability to take charge of her own life as well as her uncertainty to do things. By staying neutral to the engineers’ actions, she also gives off an aura of openness, to which the engineer takes advantage of. If Tereza had taken action against him/ then he might not have proceeded with his intentions. Another example is how at the end of the chapter, Tereza had only longed for sexual contact with a stranger. Tereza had chosen to stay in the engineer’s room, regardless of being neutral of what he did to her, and allowed him to get chose to her. If she hadn’t allowed this, she would not have felt the spontaneous excitement and therefore would not have felt so immoral to herself for wanting this excitement from a stranger. Had she been in full faith and confident with her choices, Tereza might not have felt to be so alienated from herself. The theory of self as choice shows the alienation of her body in which she not only turns on her own morals, but she is also unable to control and decide her own life choices. If Tereza is unable to decide her own actions, then it is as if she is simply a mind in a body, and not necessarily a mind controlling the body. The theory self as body, self as consciousness states a person is defined by their physical and emotional characteristics. We see that Tereza has a sense of confusion as to who she really is and what is that she wants when she stutters to comply with the engineers’ invite to his bedroom. She has not yet acknowledged certain parts of herself, such as what she wants to do or who she specifically wants to be with, whether it to be one or multiple persons. Her difficulty in deciphering with emotions to display have also affected her self-identity to the point where she ends up regretting past decisions, such as accepting the engineers invite to his bedroom. Another example that proves this theory is when Tereza is hiding inside of the bathroom and later hears the “comforting voice” of the engineer. Although she holds disgust for the engineer, she still finds attraction in his voice simply because she is confused as to what she wants physically. If Tereza cannot figure out what she wants, then she wont be able to define herself. She is confused because although she wants Tomas, she still finds comfort in the voice of a stranger. Here, we find that there is much confusion in emotion characteristics that may influence her physical actions. This confusion shows how the theory self as body , self as consciousness explains Tereza’s alienation from her own body. Throughout the story, Tereza becomes alienated from her own body in which she loses sight of her morals and desires. She has lost a sense of who she is and has become a mind in a body. Her interactions with the engineer and her choices with him display that her body is fleeing her mind. She loses her sense of self identity as well as her ability to make the right choices. The theory self as choice and the theory self-identity clearly display how Tereza is suffering alienation of her own body. Despite her inner morals, we find that she still is unable to make the connection of what she thinks she wants in her mind and what she wants physically.