How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph). We used Michael Henry Heim's translation.
Quote #7
The girl with the glasses could barely suppress her yawns, while Franz smiled blissfully at her side. The longer he looked at the pleasing gray-haired man with the admirable index finger, the more he saw him as a secret messenger, an angelic intermediary between him and his goddess. He closed his eyes and dreamed. He closed his eyes as he had closed them on Sabina's body in fifteen European hotels and one in America. (3.11.11)
Ah – now we can understand why Franz closed his eyes while he was making love with Sabina. He wasn't interested in the Sabina who stood in front of him. Rather, Franz was worshipping his idea of what Sabina represents.
Quote #8
She had taken many pictures of those young women against a backdrop of tanks. How she had admired them! And now these same women were bumping into her, meanly and spitefully. Instead of flags, they held umbrellas, but they held them with the same pride. They were ready to fight as obstinately against a foreign army as against an umbrella that refused to move out of their way. (4.3.6)
This passage reiterates the parallels the novel draws between political power and sexual power.
Quote #9
Standing there in the anteroom, she tried to withstand the strong desire to burst out crying in his presence. She knew that her failure to withstand it would have ruinous consequences. She would fall in love with him. (4.19.3)
Tereza just can't do lightness. Just as she failed at flirtation, she fails at casual sex. Tomas's lifestyle is not for her.