Milan Kundera, original sin, and the ideal form of love

A core focus of Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being is love, and it raises questions about what constitutes genuine love, why it’s difficult for humans to attain, and what attributes we can strive for. Kundera’s view of love and the human condition relies heavily on our understanding of the biblical story of original sin, which is where we’ll start.

The fall of man

As the story goes, God created Adam and Eve and sent them into the paradisical Garden of Eden to keep the land. Adam and Eve had everything they needed, and their relationship was characterized by innocence, harmony, and purity. They weren’t aware of sin, evil, or shame.

As a condition of living in the garden, God’s one instruction was as follows:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” – Gen 2:16-17

The forbidden fruit in Eden is the knowledge of morality, and the death God mentions is metaphorical. The consequence of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a loss of innocence and perfection.

But of course, Adam and Eve disobey God, who after learning of their transgression, reveals the implications of eating the fruit—that the knowledge of morality is what makes man godlike:

“Then the LORD God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.’” – Gen 3:22

This knowledge of good and evil—which sets man apart from the other creatures in the garden and makes him godlike—then creates a mind-body duality and becomes a burden that we must bear.

The knowledge of good and evil creates an unforgiving duality

The difference between Adam and Eve before and after their fall from grace is that post-fall, their actions carry weight because they know when they’re immoral. Mankind gained the ability to judge their own (and others’) actions.

And while God punished mankind with hard physical labor for men and painful childbirth for women, we really gained a more significant punishment: the conflict of having an animal body (and all of its accompanying needs and desires) with a godlike mind.

*The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise (1791) by Benjamin West*

When our actions are at odds with our sense of morality, turmoil ensues. Kundera shows this more extremely in his novel when the main character Tomas loves his partner but continues to pursue dozens of affairs despite knowing the toll it takes on her.

He believes that his infidelities are separate from his love, drawing a distinction between desire and love—whereby desire is solely a product of his instinctual, animal nature (a pre-fall Adam), and love, a product of our higher faculty.

The novel suggests that the mind-body duality inherently challenges our ability to attain love.

The ideal form of love

Instead, Kundera suggests that the highest form of love we can experience is unfettered by the mind-body duality, and more similar to the relationship between Adam and Eve pre-fall; like the platonic love between man and animal:

“Given the nature of the human couple, the love of man and woman is a priori inferior to that which can exist (at least in the best instance) in the love between man and dog, that oddity of human history probably unplanned by the Creator.” – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

*Good-Night (1914) by Arthur John Elsley*

The mind-body duality doesn’t weigh down or apply to the human-animal dynamic. We can’t judge an animal’s actions as right or wrong because they don’t know the difference. They simply act out their instincts and we don’t expect anything more of them:

“Tereza did not want anything of Karenin [her dog]; she did not ever ask him to love her back. Nor had she ever asked herself the questions that plague human couples: Does he love me? Does he love anyone more than me? Does he love me more than I love him?” – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

This type of love is similar to the love between Adam and Eve in Eden. Complete acceptance opens up the possibility for love that’s inherently selfless and light:

“Tereza accepted Karenin for what he was; she did not try to make him over in her image; she agreed from the outset with his dog’s life, did not wish to deprive him of it, did not envy him his secret intrigues.” – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

What holds us back

*The Pride of Dijon (1879) by William John Hennessy*

Can we apply the characteristics of a human-animal dynamic to our relationships? Can we love another person without judging them for who they are or trying to change them? The book suggests we’re severely inhibited by our own natures and wishes.

Although one of the main characters, Tereza, rationally accepts that her partner loves her, she struggles with his infidelities. Accepting her partner’s infidelities means suppressing her natural desire for monogamy.

“Perhaps the reason we are unable to leave is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.” – Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The mind-body duality often prevents us from accepting the people we love.

Lightness and weight

*Kiss by the Window (1892) by Edvard Munch*

Kundera says the human-animal dynamic is peaceful and light because it’s constant; there’s nothing about it that fundamentally changes:

“No one can give anyone else the gift of the idyll: only an animal can do so, because only animals were not expelled from Paradise. The love between dog and man is idyllic. It knows no development. Karenin surrounded Tereza and Tomas with a life based on repetition, and he expected the same from them.”

On the contrary, the human dynamic is inherently complicated because it always changes and fluctuates between lightness and weight:

“And therein lies the whole of man’s plight. Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.”

Kundera seems to say that human love may never be perfect or ideal because it’s in a constant state of change and progress. But it can still provide profound meaning and joy. And by striving for the characteristics of Adam and Eve’s relationship in Eden—trust, acceptance, and love without shame or guilt, much like the bond between man and animal—we can approach a purer, more harmonious form of love.