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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Book cover of The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingMilan Kundera

Characters in The Unbearable Lightness of Being

5 characters, main characters first.

Main characters

  • Tomas

    A womanizing Prague surgeon torn between his love for Tereza and his refusal to give up his affairs.

  • Tereza

    Tomas's devoted, jealous wife, a photographer who fears being reduced to just another body among his affairs.

Supporting characters

  • Sabina

    Tomas's free-spirited mistress, a painter who rejects commitment and every form of kitsch.

  • Franz

    A Swiss academic and idealist who becomes Sabina's lover.

  • Karenin

    Tomas and Tereza's female dog, named after a character in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.

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