The concept of individualism has been a major component of modern thought since its inception. Individualism asserts that people are “one and indivisible” (Kundera 21). The problem with individualism arises when one is restrained from doing what one would like to do. This prohibition results in the soul becoming divided against itself. Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents and Friedrich Nietzsche in On the Genealogy of Morals both discuss their perspectives on the origins of the divided soul. In his novel, Milan Kundera offers a comment on individualism, using the ideas of Freud and Nietzsche, in his characterization of Ludvik Jahn as a divided soul.
Freud maintains that man’s purpose in life is to achieve happiness, which he defines as “satisfaction of needs” (Freud 25). This desire to obtain happiness is impossible for people due to the suffering imposed upon us by our own bodies, nature, and our fellow human beings (Freud 37). However, humans still endeavor to fulfill this “pleasure principle” which causes a division in the person between what they desire and what they are able to achieve (Freud 34).
In Kundera’s The Joke, Ludvik exhibits this futile search for happiness. Humiliated by the bourgeois condescension of his aunt and uncle, Ludvik believes he can obtain what he desires by joining the Communist party (Kundera 137). However Ludvik repeatedly comes into conflict with the Communist leadership at his university because of what they refer to as his individualism and intellectualism (Kundera 32).
Ludvik attempts to conform to the conduct expected of him which results in a “tiny crack opening up between the person [he] had been and the person [he] should be” (Kundera 32). Freud asserts that this conflict between the self and society is the primary source for humanity’s suffering (Freud 38). Despite knowing that the spirit of the times didn’t approve of “pranks or irony,” Ludvik writes a joke about communism that gets him expelled from the Communist party and the university (Kundera 31).
In addition to conflict between self and society creating divisions in people, Ludvik also exhibits the inner division between his ego and superego, as propounded by Freud. The ego is the conscious part of a personality that most directly influences behavior and the superego is derived from internalized aggression that the ego “would have liked to satisfy upon other, extraneous individuals” (Freud 84). In short, the superego is one’s conscience which provides a check upon the actions and thoughts of the ego by imposing a sense of guilt (Freud 86).
While Ludvik’s ego causes him to feel that the words he had written were “nothing so terrible,” his superego imposes feelings of guilt upon him (Kundera 39). Ludvik begins to believe that other people’s evaluation of his actions and personality to be more true than what he considers himself to be (Kundera 46). At his hearing, Ludvik admits to the moral failings of individualism, intellectualism, complacency, skepticism, and cynicism, but still maintains that he is devoted to the Communist party (Kundera 191). This assertion is paradoxical since all the qualities Ludvik possesses are diametric to the values of the party. Thus Ludvik accepts that he must be punished in some manner, but still tries to resist expulsion from the Communist party (Kundera 46).
Ludvik also possesses components of what Nietzsche refers to as the “slave soul”. Nietzsche claims that all humans have a will to power instinct, but not everyone is able to express this instinct. A weak man (the slave soul) is suppressed from venting their aggressive instincts upon others and is forced to “find compensation in an imaginary revenge” (Nietzsche 22). Ludvik engages in this imaginary revenge upon the people who expelled him from the university by attributing their actions upon everyone he comes into contact with which results in suspicion and distrust of everyone (Kundera 76). Ludvik recreates his world in which his “outcast destiny” becomes “something heroic” (Kundera 117). This is similar to the slave soul in viewing their suppression and suffering as marks of God’s grace (Nietzsche 19).
Another example of the slave soul ethic that Ludvik demonstrates is his tendency to remember the injuries done to him (Nietzsche 40). In spite of Ludvik’s admission of guilt at his hearing, he places the blame for his expulsion upon Zemanek. For fifteen years Ludvik has harbored hatred for Zemanek, and this hatred has influenced Ludvik’s subsequent actions (Kundera 242). Even though Ludvik would like to be avenged upon Zemanek, he does not actively seek out some way of obtaining revenge. Rather, fifteen years after his expulsion, the opportunity for revenge seeks out Ludvik through the coincidental meeting with Zemanek’s wife, Helena. Ludvik plans an indirect revenge against Zemanek by having an affair with Helena, which is typical of slave soul mentality. The satisfaction Ludvik feels over accomplishing this “beautiful act of demolition” crumbles quickly when he discovers the futility of his seduction of Helena since she and Zemanek are on the verge of divorce (Nietzsche 196). Ludvik is deeply humiliated by his failed revenge on Zemanek.
The divisions within Ludvik’s slave soul are seen again in his accidental meeting with Zemanek at the Ride of the Kings. Although Ludvik would like to avoid him, he feels compelled to “walk dutifully” with Zemanek and his girlfriend (Kundera 270). During the time they spend together, Ludvik imagines that at some point Zemanek will ask forgiveness from Ludvik over the expulsion from the university (Kundera 27). In asking forgiveness from Ludvik, Zemanek would be giving Ludvik power over himself. Ludvik initially determines he will refuse reconciliation with Zemanek (Kundera 278).
After Ludvik learns that Zemanek knows of his affair with Helena and does not mind, Ludvik interprets Zemanek’s attitude towards the affair as “merely a bribe” to induce Ludvik to forgive him (Kundera 281). Ludvik is so angered by this situation that he imagines himself hitting Zemanek when he asks forgiveness, but then Ludvik realizes that he “would do nothing” (Kundera 282). Ludvik feels suppressed from not being allowed to do what he would like to do. In the end, however, Zemanek does not ask forgiveness (refusing to give Ludvik power over himself) because Zemanek does not feel the need to have forgiveness from Ludvik.
The restrictions placed upon a person by the values of one’s community leads to a division within the soul between what one would like to do and what one is allowed to do. This division of the soul causes a person to deceive themselves about who and what he or she really is. Thus, Ludvik “remains unknown” to himself (Nietzsche 3). Ludvik did not recognize his individuality and intellectualism until it was made obvious to him by his fellow university students. After his expulsion when he can no longer fight against his outcast status, Ludvik sets up Zemanek and all his values as his antithesis, disregarding the fact that, up until that point, Ludvik had shared Zemanek’s values.
One example of Ludvik’s turning away from the values that Zemanek shares is the love they both possessed of Moravian folklore. After his expulsion from the party, Ludvik shuns his previous participation in folklore music. His attitude towards the music changes after he learns that Zemanek (and the Communist party) have abandoned their attempts to reconstruct folklore (Kundera 311). Ludvik feels that the abandonment of folklore by the communists and Zemanek have “purified it,” and so Ludvik is able to embrace folklore music once again (Kundera 312).
Despite outwardly disavowing everything Zemanek stands for, Ludvik inwardly would like to have what Zemanek does, such as wanting his girlfriend (Kundera 277). This is characteristic of Nietzsche’s slave soul; while denouncing the values of the “noble souls,” the weaker members of the community still “want to be strong” (Nietzsche 33). Ludvik cannot know himself because he lives in a world created by him based on the injustice he has suffered.
Bibliography
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Ed. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961.
Kundera, Milan. The Joke. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals. Ed. Douglas Smith. New York: Oxford University, 1996.
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