Sigmund Freud's 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being'

Unbearable Lightness of Being Reflective Statement

When reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I was often confused about the meaning behind Tereza’s dreams. During my class discussion, I learned about the Freudian dream analysis and heard several perspectives behind Tereza’s dreams. This new information clarified why she acts the way she does.
Sigmund Freud’s dream theory states that our behaviors are rooted in childhood experiences. Throughout her past, Tereza was humiliated by her mother for being modest and unsettled with the human body. This experience led her to behave in a more prudent and restrictive manner. The dream theory introduced by my classmate clarifies Tereza’s frequent dreams of peculiar natures. In one dream, she

is marching around a pool naked with other women. Tomas observes over them and if one of them went out of line, he would shoot her and she would fall into the pool. recalled memories from her childhood in which her mother believed, “Your body is just like all other bodies; you have no right to shame; you have no reason to hide something that exists in millions of identical copies” Using Freud’s theory, the symbol of sameness in the dream presents Tereza’s extreme fear of not being unique.

We discussed the latent meaning behind those dreams. A classmate said that the basket dream symbolizes how Tereza feels dejected about Tomas’ promiscuous lifestyle. She wishes to stand out from his countless number of mistresses, but every attempt leaves her With the Petrin hill dream, we concluded that Tereza’s willingness to go through with the death for as long as she did symbolizes her accepting his lifestyle. Before the discussion, I felt that these earlier dreams showed Tereza’s ability to only see herself as the one suffering. In the airport dream when Tereza visualized Tomas as the rabbit, she came to terms with how he had been her pawn for over a decade. When she finally realized all of the sacrifices that Tomas had made for her, their relationship had made a turn for the better. Being able to consider other views of the dreams enabled for the understand other perspectives of the storyline
Learning about the Freudian dream analysis and explanations of Tereza’s dreams enabled me to understand more.