eing, they seek the anchor of love and sex, and yet find in it only a temporary and finally unsatisfying substitute for a more comprehensive reality based on religion, politics, etc. The more significance they place on love and sex, the less it is able to give them the reality, the truth they seek.
Death is also a barrier to the sanctuary of love and sex, and death plays an important part in the search for love of Tomas and Tereza:
He smelled the delicate aroma of her fever and breathed it in, as if trying to glut himself with the intimacy of her body. And all at once he fancied she had been with him for many years and was dying. He had a sudden clear feeling tha
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