Holiday Research: The relationships between 'If This is a Man' and 'The Unbearbale Lightness of Being'

In the texts ‘If this is a Man’ by Primo Levi and ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ by Milan Kundera the demolition of individuality is presented through the depiction of a concentration camp. The depiction of the concentration camp holds both contrasting and similar qualities between the two literary works. The main difference lies in its real life depiction in ‘If this is a Man’ and its metaphorical depiction in ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’. Aside from this difference the depiction concentration camp still intends communicate its ability to extinguish ones originality and create a community of uniformity. Tereza’s experience within a concentration camp appears to be perceived unlike Levi’s first-hand experience; however both experiences succeed to tormenting both of them psychologically. Above all the unwritten aim of the Concentration camp is to create a state of kitsch, which quietly haunts the souls of those who fear it most including Sabina in the Unbearable Lightness of Being.

A Concentration camp to Tereza is nothing more than a metaphor to describe her life from childhood yet it still manages to fuse into her adult life. Ever since being a small child she has been obsessed with her body image, undoubtedly influenced by her mother known to ‘walk naked out onto the street’. It is for this very reason she values its privacy. Amidst her desire to ‘wish away’ her mother’s complexions from her face by ‘standing hours in front of the mirror’ to become an individual or her own, she is plagued by the external world that inhibits her ability to achieve this. The concentration camp in Tereza’s life takes its form from her desire to become an individual rather than a mere ‘continuation of her mother’ as well as the dream to define herself differently from the many other of Tomas mistresses. Levi is contrastingly plagued by a concentration camp in ‘the hundreds’ of identical bodies he’s sees before him. Externally they resemble nothing more than his own appearance like ‘miserable and sordid puppets’ no longer living in their own control but from the control of the German Nazi’s. Unlike Tereza whose concentration camp has intertwined her life since birth, Levi’s experience is forced upon him unexpectedly which perhaps makes it easier to maintain his sense of self from what it has been for so long. If Tereza did not despise sharing physical attributes of her mother and Tomas’s mistresses perhaps her world would not be defined as a concentration camp as it is not inflicting mental pain and controlling her way of life to the same extent.

Kundera interestingly develops Tereza within a metaphorical world of a concentration camp in order to develop the world to wishes to escape to. ‘She came to Tomas to make her body unique, irreplaceable’ but instead she had been sent back into ‘the world she tried to escape’ the world amongst the other naked women. The only reason why she had the strength to escape her mother (whom she never stopped loving) was because of the absence of her ‘mothers loving voice’. At first it had seemed like Tomas had rescued her like ‘baby Moses’ from the depths of her mother’s world, ‘a world where all bodies were equal’ but Tomas only drew an ‘equal sign’ between her and all his other mistresses. She is left to remain helpless in the ‘humiliation’ of ‘nudity’ haunting her day and night. Levi has similar desires to escape the effects of the concentration camp in identifying the lives of individuals such as the couple ‘Francesca and Renzo’ and ‘3 year old Emilia’. In doing so he fights against the Kitsch of the concentration camp, giving back life to each individual and mentally destroys the tattooed numbers which rid them of this. Levi treats the principles of a name delicately because of his will to preserve ‘the strength’ that enables him to keep the ‘something behind his name’ as it was before. Maintaining this sense of self and others, nurtures his saneness and enables him to momentarily escape the psychological constraints of the concentration camp.

The development of the Concentration camp during World War two was designed to slowly torture its victims both physically and mentally until eventual death, wiping out a population of jews. A ‘group of naked women’ for Tereza is a ‘quintessential image of horror’ and one that returns continuously in her dreams. The horror of the dream is not developed in its single existence but in Tereza’s ability to re-play them in her mind ‘turning them into legends’. It is in the repetition of the dream that tortures the mind, enabling the dream to appear real to Tereza and even more threatening.

Amidst the world of the concentration camp, Levi and Teresa cannot help but feel sunken to ‘the bottom’. Levi is awakened to the allusion that perhaps it is the ‘private initiative of our Charon’, the Greek mythology character to transport them ‘down’ ‘on the bottom’ of the earth, the place of hell, the concentration camp. But in titling the second of his chapters ‘On the Bottom’ we as readers are informed of the real reality of hell. Although we are aware that all things heavy ‘sink’ to the bottom, it is ironic that Levi is placed on the bottom when stripped and empty of what defines him as an individual. His number, ‘174517’ that is tattooed is all that is ‘given’ to him that is different from everything else he is given within the camp. It is inevitably a symbol of baptism whilst ironically a symbol shadowing his future death ‘carried on his arm’. Hence it is his number that lures him to the place ‘on the bottom’, the place death, as it forecasts the beginning of his journey there. Levi finds the ‘double sense’ in understanding in why the Germans call Auschwitz ‘an extermination camp’. It is to literally exterminate the human by slow reverse personification, from one is deprived of ‘everyone he loves, his house, his habits, his clothes, everything he possesses ‘into a ‘hollow man’ so that he can ‘lie on the bottom’.

This concept is similarly explored in the Unbearable Lightness of Being, but from Tereza’s striking perspective. Through the depiction of Tereza Kundera considers the idea that ‘someone whose goal is something higher must expect some day to suffer vertigo’. Kundera defines vertigo as not only ‘the fear of the falling’ but the ‘voice of emptiness below which tempts us and lures us’. In Tereza’s world the emptiness below is the place of her mother and Tomas’s mistresses, empty because of their separation of soul from their bodies. It is because of this Tereza had experienced a strong desire to escape terrified from this place, but it continues to ‘mysteriously beckon’ her back in her dreams. ‘The corpses in the hearse rejoicing’ that she was dead were ‘down below’ and are depicted like lonely echoes of the soulless calling her. In ‘times of weakness’ Tereza feels obliged to follow these calls, giving up the strong connection she holds between her soul and body that enable her to live among the other of Tomas’s mistresses, without the pain of humiliation.

When a man is hollow he is weak, but Levi is resilient in preserving himself so he does not ‘lie on the bottom’ as a ‘hollow man’. Although he admits that it is ‘practically pointless’ to wash every day in the ‘turbid water’ of the ‘filthy wash basins’ he feels he must do so to sustain his human ‘dignity’. Not because ‘regulation states it’ but because ‘dignity and propriety’ help you ‘remain alive’. One must not ‘begin to die’ in a Concentration Camp as otherwise you will become weak and ‘lie on the bottom’ even before you are destined to get there. In this sense instead of the ‘the voice’ that calls Tereza back to ‘the bottom’ it is the temptation to give up your normalities of your previous life and begin to shrink into the darkness of concentration camp that lures you to this place in ‘If This is a Man’.

Depth of the Pool: suffocation of one’s soul, the fear of falling into the deep waters of the pool where she is helpless, like the others of Tomas’s mistresses. Tereza feels particularly vulnerable in her dreams where she her fear of ‘falling to her death’ is maximized. In her dream she is forced to do knee bends in rhythm with the other mistresses. While around the ‘pool full of corpses floating just below the surface’ she felt like she ‘lacked the strength to do the next knee bend’ and was sure of herself that Tomas would shoot her. From this perspective the difference between the pathway to ‘the bottom’ for Levi and Tereza is their difference in strength. Both admittedly lack physical strength, Tereza in her inability to do ‘knee bends’ and Levi in his ‘weak and clumsy’ nature; however the difference appears in their psychological resilience. Tereza’s dreams only work to fuel her fear of becoming no different to the other of Tomas’s mistresses and consequently her belief that she will always be like this. She lacks the mentality to fall out of this viscous cycle that has repeated itself ever since being a child. She firmly believes that she is weak living ‘among the weak, in the camp of the weak’,

What do dreams serve in both texts. For Tereza they only seem to relive the horrors felt during the daylight, but for Levi they act as an opening of freedom, the opportunity to dream beyond the barbed wire of the camp, and infuse a moment of hope into his life, they are comforting at the time, only the ‘awakening’, that point in time where he wakes up is his hope crushed by the world he awakens to(described as the acutest of sufferings). We are told that dreams are only rare inside the concentration camp and ‘they are not long’. Levi’s excuse of dreaming in such way is because he is a ‘tired beast’. His use of ‘beast’ best describes the strength that he once held inside of him, but also the potential to regain this strength only because he is ‘tired’ not dying. The dream is hence a function of being tired. When we are tired we easily drift into the world of subconscious, the dream, losing focus of reality. Often from her we are taken to a place of comfort greater than the conscious world. Although the dream may disappear within seconds for Levi, it mere existence tells us of his deep internal desire, to escape to a place more comforting than where he currently is. The wagons carrying What do dreams serve in preserving our human nature? They are there to reflect, organise and find answers to problems in the conscious world; the subconscious is intriguingly sophisticated and often surprises us by what it manages to create.

Contrasting depictions of Privacy in We and the UBLOB

The notion of privacy in the UBLOB is depicted as a very desirable trait. However the lack of privacy that has infested itself within the life of Tereza has consequently rid her of her individuality. We area reminded throughout the novel that Tereza feels her life is set within a concentration camp. The concentration camp hold connotations of 'brutality and torture' but Kundera is sure to remind us that these these characteristics are 'secondary' features of the purpose within the camp. The removal of ones sense of individuality and uniqueness is the unspoken goal. Each human turns into an exact copy of the person next to them (metaphorically), transforming them internally and externally. This concept is what Tereza always fears throughout the novel. She has strong desires to escape this 'concentration camp' she has lived in her entire life. Her mother is shown to be largely responsible for this, reading out Tereza's personal diary to all her friends. Her step-father would come into the bathroom whilst she was in the bath, which prompted Tereza to lock the door to conceal the privacy of herself. When her mother found out she was furious, questioning her whether she believes 'he's going to bite off a piece of your beauty' The concept follows her and reminds her every day. Among the crowded clutter of bodies inside the tram her personal space is invaded. There is no sense of importance of the body within this environment. Tereza is scared in these kind of situtations because she feels like she loses the control of her own body. The clutter of bodies does not value the body as an individual, it rather acts as a whole, and removes the ability for one to define the difference between your own body and the people around you.

We on the other hand, embraces the idea of an environment where one can see the action of every other individual. The One State ultimately aims to have 24hr surveillance of every cipher. The use of glass of every building inhibits the ciphers to carry out tasks in the privacy of themselves unless during personal hour. At night the ciphers 'transparent cages' are 'brightly lit' only those rooms that have their permission for lowering blinds stand out amongst the bright lights. Ciphers brought up within this environment find comfort in this style of living, especially D-503. D-503 is in fact scared of the inability to see through 'opaque walls' and the 'fog', two unconquerable features that D-503 feels as though he cannot control because of their physical qualities. The Cube Plaza, a panoticon style building, constructed as sixty-six concentric circles serves as the major meeting place for all ciphers of the One State. The center acts only as a place of the One States powerful dictator, the Benefactor and the 'Bell Jar'. From here the Benefactor can see a three hundred and sixty degree view of all ciphers, destroying the existence of privacy and keeping the ciphers consistently on the edge of unspoken terror in his presence. The place of the annual re-election of the Benefactor undoubtedly takes place in the Cube Plaza, which discourages the ciphers from rebelling against his orders without being caught.

It is interesting that the removal of privacy acts as a desired control of the ciphers for the One State, but Tereza seeks the control of her soul and body in the presence of privacy. Hence privacy in the One State is not respected as it is shown by Tereza. Privacy enables Tereza to develop he soul and body individualistically, but the non-existence of privacy of the One State, other than personal hour, enables the development of uniformity and the demolition of character and individualism.

Research on the Relationship between 'We' and 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'

Dreams are seen as a ‘physic sickness’ in We. In We dreams also act as haunting device. After firstly visiting the Ancient house, D503 is left in an uncomfortable position; he is puzzled by this world he has been ‘thrown’ into in the presence of I-330. Consequently he dreams of items in the Ancient House like the ‘Bronze Buddha’, ‘sap dripping down from the mirror’ and the ‘yellow dress . . . yellow as a lemon’, but in a very surrealistic way. The obscurity his dreams are significant in showing his distressed state of mind. This is similar to the distressed state of the mind of Tereza.

Dreams are also used symbolically in The Unbearable Lightness of Being as a way of communicating Tereza’s jealously of Tomas mistresses that she is unable to communicate to him consciously. Dreams are important in portraying the emotions of Tereza, because of her inability to convey these emotions directly to Tomas. The ‘weight’ that these thoughts held inside of her, worrying about the mistresses/Tomas’s love for her, is haunting her within her subconscious mind. The main difference between dreams in We and the UBLOB is that Tereza dream appear to be more objective, and D-503's more subjective. ( need to still write more on this topic)

The idea of serving for another’s good is also present in both texts. D-503 feels pride in serving the One State for its own good, as builder of the Integral. “I am D-503. I am the Builder of the Integral” he says in the opening record. The use of capitals in ‘Builder’ implies the D-503’s genuine pride of the job. D-503 over ruling commitment to the One State can be shown through his decision to undergo the ‘great operation’. However D-503 is lured out of his commitment out of his own control Tereza is lured out of her commitment by her own desire to become an individual.

Kundera intends to show the theme of serving through Tereza, from a young age she ‘works as a waitress, handing over all her earnings’ and ‘running the household’ as a willingly doing ‘anything to gain her mother’s love’. When you serve you place other people before yourself and because she has done this her entire life, she has always been the one below, the less important one. She ‘yearns for something higher’ in her life and ‘she was the brightest in her class’ yet she somewhat feels restricted by her physical appearance, standing ‘before the mirror so often’ and trying to ‘see herself through it’. Brought on by her mother in the way she paraded the body ‘stark naked around the house’ and criticised Tereza for locking the door to the bathroom to hide her body. Except the problem was that Tereza strived for something higher through her body, but the body was not something she could change.

The idea of nurturing is also present in both texts. In We we learn that that D-503 values his diary as though it is a baby inside of him- ‘like the pulse of a tiny unseeing mini-being . . . feeding for many months on my blood, and then, in anguish, it will be ripped from myself and placed on the foot of the State’. He also makes mention to how ‘the One State is not yet born, we are joyfully ripening’ which has connotations of growth like a child inside a woman’s stomach. Similarly in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tomas appears to play the role of nurturing Tereza- ‘A single metaphor can give birth to love’-his ‘rescue’ of Tereza, taking her home and letting her stay and recover while sick is metaphorical to Moses being rescued from the river in the bulrush basket, as well as the story of ‘young Oedipus, Sophocles wouldn’t have written his most beautiful tragedy’.

The Depiction of the Soul appears to show linkages between the two texts. The soul is defined as the inner sense that drives your emotions, feelings, like a conscience. It is an inner psychological world that no one can see into, a way of determining what is right and wrong. The soul is developed through outside influences. The body is a vessel to your soul; it is the thing that sparks to the makeup of who you are. The soul is intangible, something that no one can handle, it is a word that gives a name to intangible internal thoughts and emotions. The soul triggers a set of ways of judging and knowing human existence. It is aligned to the philosophical world.

In the UBLOB Tereza reflects on the relationship between the soul and body, and their strong interrelationship. She struggles to detach the soul from the body in order to see through into herself. Instead she sees her body through her soul, and this in turn causes her distress. Each time she would "stare all the more doggedly at her image in an attempt to wish away" her mothers features. This reflects the strong desire of her soul to control and change the body, but every time she succeeds her soul "would rise to the surface of her body like a crew charging up the bowels of a ship" , in other words she would see her soul in the form of her own body. Perhaps this quote suggests that Tereza feels as though her soul is also indented with the features of her mother. This moment is also described as "a time of intoxication", because it seems her mothers features seep into soul as the soul and body are seen as one through the eyes of Tereza looking into the mirror.

On the other hand D503 one makes recognition of his soul upon being in the presence of I-330. He firstly begins to recognize his sensuality which develops his 'soul'. The soul is only associated with the ancient world, described as a 'strange ancient, long forgotten word' and because of this it is feared by D503, and he begins to loose his grounding to the One State. The fact that it is 'incurrable' makes this 'sickness' even more 'grave' to him. During his immersion into the dimensions of his soul, he is awakened to the new unknown world beyond the limitations of Mathematics. The difference between the depiction of the soul in these two texts is that Tereza sees the soul and body as one, but D-503 cannot associate the body with the soul. The One State preferably favours the body with machine like qualities, which includes the absence of the soul in order to achieve this.

Research assignment Henrik Ibsen

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zEinscfQ2xggDOZjGIXm4anm_eTIx8kX74HytzzyL9g/edit?hl=en&authkey=CM2FuOMC#

Stage directions-A Dolls House

The opening stage directions in "A Doll's House" are important to help understand the setting,time period, season and class of the characters. The directions begin "a comfortable room, furnished inexpensively, but with taste" suggesting that the scene is set within a well used room, that belongs to a middle class family, due to its inexpensive yet tasteful look. Ibsen then continues to describe the room in much detail, and perhaps at times mentioning items that could have been left out such as "Between the door and the stove stands a little table" and "there is carpet on the floor". This in turn demonstrates Ibsen's writing style, in which he values small details that help to create a scene as if audience is looking straight through his eyes. "The stove is lit" and "it is a winter day" tells us that the play is set in winter.

It is interesting to see how much we can deduce about the roles and qualities of Norah and Helmer within the opening stage setting.A special mention of "Helmer's study" is introduced in the second sentence is made to compliment the description of the main room. This signifies that Helmer is a powerful character as he is allocated a study for himself even within the means of a middle class family home.

Moving on in the opening scene Nora's characteristics are revealed. Her fear of revealing the truth to he husband is evident when she "takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket" eats just "one or two" and then goes "cautiously to her husbands door and listens". It is clear that she see's her husband as having authority over what she does, but is friverless in meddling with these rules so she can have some freedom to do what she wants. Her caution in approaching Helmer's study door implies her need to keep her actions secret to ensure she doesn't 'get caught' as if like a young child. The sweet macaroons symbolize her feeling of self indulgence,to get away with something she knows is forbidden, giving her a sense of freedom.

Helmer's use of possessive pronouns and use of third person illustrates Helmer's ability to have power over Nora. "My Sweet little skylark" is one of Helmer's 'pet names' for Nora.The use of 'My' places Helmer's feeling of dominance and authority, as if she belongs to him. This is reflected later on when Nora comments that "Torvold is so incredibly fond of me that he wants to keep me all to himself."

The Life and Career of Henrik Ibsen

Henirk Ibsen is the worlds most frequently performed dramatist after William Shakespeare and the founder of modern theatre. His productions have been performed on every continent and in many different languages.

Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway in 1828. His father, Knud, was wealthy merchant and importer while his mother,Marichen Altenbergl, came from an affluent family. Henrik was the oldest of five children after his older brother died at just one and a half. The family lived in a spacious Villa living a grand life until his father in-counted financial problems which led to bankruptcy. Ibsen was seven when his family were forced into their family farm out of town. The children became detached from their father when he began to drink excessively. From this time Ibsen became increasingly introverted and was encouraged by his mother to start to stage puppet theater. He suffered from his families loss of wealth, feeling like an outsider.

In 1844, 15 yr Ibsen left Skien aboard the Coastal ferry to Grimstad, where his father arranged him to become an apothecary's apprentice, with the plan to study medicine later. Although applying himself to his medical studies, and having almost no money, Ibsen read extensively including classics by Shakespeare and Ludvig Holberg. Even though he was more interested in Literature than Pharmacy, he worked hard, and was curious, inquiring nature and studying plants effects on the body.

Later in Grimstad Ibsen began to write. He met a girl name Clara Ebbel who he worte his first love poems to. However he later fell in love with the apothecary's servant women, Else Sophie Jensdatter and in 1846 had their first child, Hans Jacob Henriksen.

In 1848, the French revolution began and this was a subject of great interest to Ibsen. Inspired by these events Ibsen wrote his first play Catiline about a Roman Rebel and conspirator Catiline. In 1850 Ibsen was getting ready to leave Grimsatd to settle in Christiania(now Oslo). In Christiania Ibsen decided to take the entrance examinations to study at the University. He failed Greek and maths, which encouraged him to follow the future path of a young playwriter.

Here after Ibsen devoted himself to his writing. He met new friends Bjornstjerne Bjornson ,Philologist Paul Botten-Hansen, and Aasmund Olavson Vinje. With Botten-Hansen and Olavson Vinje, Ibsen started Andhrimner named after the cook fro the gods in Nordic mythology. They reported on debates in parliament, theater performances and skiing competitions. These experiences as a journalist gave Ibsen valuable insights into the society which he drew on in his later writings.

In 1857, Ibsen moved to Christiania, where he was offered a job at the National Theatre, and in the following year married Susannah Thoresen. Here, Ibsen put on works such as Warriors (Vikings) at Helgeland, and he started experimenting with prose drama.

In 1864, he was awarded a grant for foreign travel and set sail for Copenhagen. The Danes were fighting Prussia and Ibsen resented the fact that Norway remained neutral and felt he could not return there.

He moved on to Rome. Ironically, in Ibsen's self-imposed exile he became aggressively Norwegian, and,, wrote, Brand in a Norwegian vernacular. By the time he completed the play in 1865 Henrik and his family were facing tough financial circumstances. However Brand proved a success and touched the conscience of Norway and helped Ibsen back up financially

Peer Gynt was published in 1867. It is often regarded as Henrik Ibsen's greatest play in verse. His reputation was now established and he gradually emerged into a new artistic phase, writing 'realistic' plays that focussed on social and political issues. These works, including A Doll's House (1879), The Wild Duck (1886) andHedda Gabler (1890), proved highly controversial and influential.

Returning to Norway in 1891, his later works, including The Master Builder (1892) were more concerned with symbolism. Henrik Ibsen suffered from strokes and in 1890 one effectively ended his literary career.

Henrik Ibsen died in 1906 in Cristiania.

Martin Seymour Smith, in his Guide to Modern World Literature, said:

"Ibsen's influence is to be seen in every important European dramatist who came after him. Pirandello was particularly affected. Acquaintance with his work makes it clear that no aspiring playwright could fail to react to it and to learn from it. Ibsen gave European drama the depth it lacked, both by his technique (the masterly recreation of the past in terms of the present; the invention of a truly realistic dialogue) and by the diversity of his approach..."

Sources:

Norwegian Writers, 1500 to 1900. Ed. Lanae H. Isaacson. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 354. Detroit: Gale, 2010. From Literature Resource Center.

Henrik Ibsen's Biography,http://www.biogs.com/famous/ibsen.html,retrieved 12 Feburary 2011.

Gray, Ronald. "Henrik (Johan) Ibsen." European Writers: The Romantic Century. Ed. George Stade. Vol. 7. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Feb. 2011