The Student

Character Analysis

Misery

Kundera says that the student is litost incarnate. In fact, in order to explain that untranslatable word to us—it means "torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery"—he gives several examples from the student's life. Our favorite memory involves violin lessons:

He was not very gifted and his teacher would interrupt him to criticize his mistakes in a cold, unbearable voice...But instead of trying to play in tune and not make mistakes, he would deliberately play the wrong notes... (V."Litost?".3)

While the student actually comes off as a little beast in this book, Kundera seems to give him some wiggle room to worm his way into our hearts. After all, poor little kid, right? Our sympathy for the student is short-lived, however, when we learn that his litost in love leads him to smack his girlfriends around. Not cool.

But the student is about to meet his match.

Hypercelibacy

When we meet the student, his major source of litost is his sex life—or lack thereof. He's been having a great time with Kristyna, his married "lover." But he's yet to enjoy her favors. And now, she's coming to town.

Yeah, well, it turns out that Kristyna isn't good enough for Prague circles. Her appearance in the city has the opposite effect from what the student expected: "With her ridiculous beads and her discreet gold tooth (in an upper corner of her mouth), she seemed to personify the negation of that youthful feminine beauty in jeans who had been cruelly rejecting him for months. He made his way uncertainly to her, bringing his litost with him (V."Compromise".2).

It's not until Petrarch and Goethe approve of Kristyna's simplicity that the student can regain his composure. Once Goethe points out the value of such a woman to a poet, the student is all in again. He can't help it—he's a poser. If he can possess such a woman, then he's one step closer to literary greatness.

But in the end, the student is less worried about the ivory tower than he is about his "needs"—and when those aren't met, he sinks into despair. He doesn't want to be like Lermontov, the poet of hypercelibacy. He wants to be a Petrarch or a Goethe, poets inspired by muses with great legs.

The "In" Crowd

The student, like Kundera and Madame Raphael, wants to be part of a great circle dance—he wants to run with the cool poets. When he receives the invitation from his professor Voltaire to join him at the Writers Club, he knows his chances of acceptance into the inner circle have increased exponentially.

In Lermontov, he finds a kindred soul. But Lermontov is a loser: he has no luck with the ladies, despite his poetic reputation. In fact, the student gets his lucky break precisely because Lermontov is a loser and a target for the academic bullies around him. When Lermontov declares his pride (he is a great poet, after all), the others attack. The student leaps to his defense:

"A poet's pride is not ordinary pride. Only the poet himself can know the value of what he writes. Others don't understand it until much later, or they may never understand it. So it's the poet's duty to be proud. If he weren't, he would betray his own work." (V."Lermontov's Side".14)

If we're ever going to like the student, it's in this moment (and maybe this moment alone). He says the right thing, for the right reasons. Of course, he'll negate that the next day, when his loyalty to Lermontov is not as convenient for him. But at least he gets it briefly.

Ironically, it's Kristyna that secures the student his reputation among the men. Despite the disappointing (for him) evening they spend together in bed, the student comes away with a gem: Kristyna's simple little love note. It impresses the heck out of Petrarch and Goethe. With a love like that, they declare, the student must be on the path to greatness.