The Farewell Party: Analysis of Major Characters

Author: Milan Kundera

First published: La Valse aux adieux, 1976 (English translation, 1976)

Genre: Novel

Locale: Czechoslovakia

Plot: Farce

Time: The 1960's

Klima, a rich and famous jazz trumpeter. Klima is a polite and gallant gentleman who loves his wife immensely yet needs to be with other women occasionally. For him, these affairs strengthen the erotic passion of his marriage. Deep down, he dreads all women and feels doomed to fall victim to the power that pregnancy gives them over men. This fear is realized when Ruzena makes her paternity claim on him. He is generally a calm, reasonable, and clear-thinking man, but in trying to persuade Ruzena to have an abortion, his nerves overcome him and cause him inadvertently to say and do things he later regrets. A clever and imaginative liar, Klima ultimately is a bumbler and muddles through only by luck and the intervention of others. Professionally, he loves playing the trumpet but is not truly comfortable with his fame as an artist. Too much attention worries him.

Ruzena, a nurse at a health and fertility spa in the mountains. Ruzena is a forthright and hard-edged young woman, a moderately attractive blond in a desolate rural existence. She envies the wealthy married women she attends and fears that she will have to settle for a life with Franta, whom she loathes but tolerates. She likes power and longs for excitement. She spends one night with Klima and convinces herself that he is therefore responsible for her pregnancy, which offers a way out of her current existence. At first, she is determined to have the baby. She is swayed by those around her, however—her friends one way and Klima the other—and ends up confused and indecisive, not knowing what she wants or whom she can trust.

Bartleff, an older American patient at the spa. Bartleff is a jovial bon vivant who, in spite of serious illness, energetically loves and affirms life. He is married to a younger woman who recently bore him (he assumes) a son. He is intelligent and well read, especially in religion and philosophy, and he paints striking religious pictures as a hobby. Talkative, generous, and often theatrical, he usually is the center of attention.

Kamila Klima, Klima's beautiful wife. Kamila was on the road to a successful singing career when illness cut it short, and now her beauty is pervaded with an air of sadness. She is devoted to her husband but does not trust him and has learned to exploit her moods and sickliness to get his sympathy. Plagued by jealousy and constant suspicions, she sets out to catch Klima in his philandering. Despite her certainty, she is terrified of the truth.

Dr. Skreta, the doctor who runs the health and fertility spa. Dr. Skreta is a middle-aged gynecologist with a supercilious attitude toward almost everything. A blatant chauvinist, he theorizes at length about women and treats his patients in a ridiculously offhand manner. He is a dominant person and a schemer who imposes his will on others. Dr. Skreta detests stupid people and is secretly populating the country-side—and eventually, he hopes, the world—with his own progeny by injecting a special fertility drug—his sperm—into women who believe themselves barren but who, he knows, suffer only from their husbands' inadequate virility. He is much more interested in what is practical and expedient than in what is moral. He also is an amateur drummer.

Franta, a local mechanic and Ruzena's boyfriend. Franta is pathetically in love with Ruzena. His possessiveness and jealousy drive him to extremes of both violent rage and superhuman patience. He proudly believes that he is responsible for Ruzena's pregnancy and is determined that she bear the child.

Jakub, a forty-five-year-old political dissident who has come to the spa to bid Dr. Skreta and Olga farewell. Jakub is an intellectual who thinks exhaustively, reads symbolic meaning into everything, and takes moral questions very seriously. Although prone to sentimental and dramatic perceptions and at heart very compassionate, he has learned to conceal his inner states. Having endured persecution and imprisonment, he is extremely cynical about human nature. His true solace is a poison pill, procured years ago from Dr. Skreta, by which he has maintained control over his own death and which, now that he has permission to emigrate, he no longer believes he needs. Despite his comprehensive moral ruminations, Jakub is a notorious procrastinator and freezes at the moment of action. He has mixed feelings about leaving his homeland and about his ward, Olga, whom he loves paternally but sometimes considers an unwanted burden.

Olga, a young, frail patient at the spa. Olga's father was wrongly executed when she was seven years old, and she was adopted and reared by Jakub. She loves Jakub dearly but resents the patronizing way he treats her and wants to be recognized for the woman she has become. She is very intelligent and strongly committed to principles such as freedom and moral rectitude. Her anxiety, uncertainty, and weakness, however, keep her from being the calm, elegant, self-assured, and daring modern woman she imagines herself to be. Olga often becomes detached from life, one who observes rather than one who experiences. A silent and private woman, she is fascinated with death.