Ludvik gets thrown out of university for a joke: Optimism is the opium of the people. Long live Trotsky!
But this joke showed that he had what we might call a "bad attitude".
Tomas was a bit more reflective. Why did the Communists go through this ritual of claiming that they didn't know? Oedipus didn't know, but he felt guilty as hell.
And when Tomas was asked (and asked and asked) to take it all back, he couldn't or wouldn't.
Until finally, Tomas decided he didn't want to do anything that might bring the secret police back bothering Tereza.
People around Tomas wanted him to give in, expected him to give in, and he was surprised by that--surprised and disturbed. Whenever Ludvik met someone, he was haunted with the question: would this person, too, have voted to throw me out of the party, to throw me out of university? And the thought that they would or might betray him would not go away.
Ludvik wanted revenge, and, consequently, he was stuck in the past. Tomas became attached to Tereza and Tomas died a happy man. We do not know about Ludvik's end.
(Vaclav: protagonist in Kundera's "The Joke")_
(Ludvik: "The Unbearable Lightness")
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