The Joke

The narrative of The Joke is nonlinear. The events of the novel take place over the course of a weekend, during which time the narrative shifts back to the past to contextualize and explain how the characters reached this point in their lives. This structure emphasizes the influence of the past, showing the audience how characters such as Ludvik are caught in a tangled web of their own history. Ludvik is a formerly ardent Communist whose misinterpreted joke caused his expulsion from the Party. After 15 years of hard labor, he is no longer the man he once was. As such, his return to his hometown is also a confrontation with the events of his past. He returns to Moravia for revenge, intending to have sex with Helena as retribution against her husband, Zemanek, whom Ludvik blames for his expulsion from the Party. Ludvik’s desire for revenge drives him forward far more than any other passion in his life. He is even willing to return to a town he left behind many years ago, even though the return (coupled with the profound reality of his imminent revenge) dredges up difficult memories. Ludvik is willing to endure his past, even if he cannot escape it. The structure of the novel illustrates how beholden he is to his own personal history, as is every other character.

The narrative perspective changes between the various parts of the novel. The change in perspective demonstrates the subjectivity and absurdity of the characters’ motivations, as well as illustrating The Artificial Pasts that they have constructed for themselves and projected onto others. Ludvik is returning to Moravia on a revenge mission, believing that having sex with Helena will strike a blow against his enemy, Zemanek. When the narrative switches to Helena’s perspective, the audience realizes that Helena’s marriage to Zemanek is already coming to an end. Both Zemanek and Helena have been unfaithful, and divorce seems imminent. Meanwhile, Helena is genuinely intrigued by Ludvik and hopes that he can provide her with a moment of emotional reprieve at a difficult time.

The effect of Helena’s chapters is to reveal how cruel and pathetic Ludvik’s plans are. He is emotionally manipulating Helena to exact revenge against her estranged husband for something that happened more than a decade ago and that did not concern her at all. When the narrative returns to Ludvik’s perspective, his machinations become all the more pitiful and malicious due to the audience’s insight into Helena’s situation. What’s more, the juxtaposition of Ludvik’s and Helena’s perspectives reveals their profound misunderstanding of themselves and each other. Ludvik is preoccupied with the version of The Artificial Past that he has built his identity around, and as Helena gives a Performance of Identity that seems to support her image of a faithful wife and mother, she unwittingly confirms Ludvik’s misconceptions. Likewise, Ludvik’s performance as a sincere and devoted lover fools Helena into believing she has found something more authentic than her life with Zemanek.

In addition to those of Ludvik and Helena, the opening section of the novel introduces a third perspective: the Party. The Party is an ever-present force, a nebulous presence that governs the lives of everyone in Czechoslovakia. Though the Party is neither human nor given the narrative perspective of the other characters, the citizens of Czechoslovakia live under its constant gaze. By the time the novel begins, many years after the revolution, the Czechoslovakians understand and expect that the Party is constantly observing them. They alter their behavior accordingly by performing their identities; when they do not, they suffer consequences such as being expelled from the Party. Expulsion, as Ludvik demonstrates, is like being exiled from public life. The Party in the novel functions almost like an alternative narrative perspective, one that observes and documents the lives of the citizens and demands that their stories be told following the Party’s expectations. However, these demands result in absurdities large and small, introducing the theme of Totalitarianism as Absurdity. A simple joke smears the loyal Communist Ludvik as a political dissident; in the book’s climax, a desperate attempt to maintain an image results in a misunderstanding that humiliates both Ludvik and Helena. These absurdities will multiply as the novel progresses.