Study Guide

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Part 6, Chapter 28

By Milan Kundera

Part 6, Chapter 28

When Simon receives the telegram about Tomas and Tereza's death, he immediately gets on his motorcycle and heads to their village to arrange the funeral.
On Tomas's gravestone, he has engraved the words: "HE WANTED THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH" (6.28.2). He knows that Tomas would never have said these words, but feels as though they expressed what his father thought, deep down.
Above Franz's grave were the words "A RETURN AFTER LONG WANDERINGS" (6.28.3).
Religiously, it meant a return to God's kingdom. But of course everyone knew that it was meant to refer to his marriage with Marie-Claude.
Indeed, Marie-Claude popularized this interpretation.
According to Marie-Claude, Franz had simply been taken by a mid-life crisis, and was ensnared by that young girl. But deep down, Franz was good, and always loved his wife.
This was why, tortured, he sought his own death in Cambodia.
He even begged her forgiveness, she says, with his eyes of course, before his death. And she forgave him.

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