Character Analysis
Karel has some serious issues with women—though what man in this book doesn't? In all the years of his marriage to Marketa, he's managed to alienate both his mother and his wife. He ignores his mama (okay, she is a bit of a harpy), and Marketa...well, here's how it shakes out with her:
In the first weeks of their love, it was decided between Karel and Marketa that Karel would be unfaithful and Marketa would accept it, but that Marketa would have the right to be the better of the two and Karel would feel guilty toward her. (II.6.12)
So, yeah, Karel is a woman-chaser. There's a deep-seated reason for this chasing, and her name is Mrs. Nora. Nora was an old friend of Mama's, a beauty who taunted 4-year-old Karel with her naked body one day when she undressed in front of him at a spa.
Karel just can't let it go:
The image of that naked body standing up and seen from behind, had never been effaced from his memory...He was close to the body, yet infinitely distant from it. Doubly distant. In space and time. It rose very high above him and was separated from him by countless years. That double distance made the little 4-year-old boy dizzy. (II.11.11)
Now, as a grown man, Karel seeks to bridge the gap and fulfill his childhood sexual fantasies. Eek. Eva is his vehicle—man-chasing Eva who appears before him as a liberated but awkward woman looking for adventure. A beautiful woman who made the fortunate choice to undress in front of him for the first time with her back turned to him.
Karel knows that he's struck gold with Eva: she's not jealous of Marketa, and Marketa seems to get along with her. "...the two women became friends, allies, accomplices who raped him, played with him, amused themselves at his expense, and desired him together" (II.8.10).
Which brings us to Karel's major problem: there's no more room for what Karel wants out of his life and his bed. When Mama's visit runs into Eva's, Karel just can't take it anymore: he's surrounded by women who want to run his life. The prospect of a threesome with Eva and Marketa no longer appeals to him:
...he reflected that he had never been able to live the way he wanted, to have the women he wanted and to have them the way he wanted them. He longed to run away to a place where he could weave his own story, weave it by himself to his own taste and out of reach of loving eyes. (II.8.15)
Wah, wah, wah. Karel's really suffering less from a lack of freedom and more from an old score that needs to be settled: Mrs. Nora. If he can conquer that impossibly distant body, he'll have something he really, really wanted—reality notwithstanding.
Karel's triumph over the two women's bodies (three if you count Mrs. Nora) somehow magically repairs his relationships with Marketa and Mama. Marketa has taken a page from Karel's book and no longer needs to feel like the "better" but wronged partner, and Karel can now see Mama for what she is, a frail old woman who doesn't care about his problems.
With the retreat of the two most controlling women in his life, Karel finally gets his greatest wish—to be alone.