Essay By: Vaclav Havel
Velvet Hangover refers to Velvet revolution. The hangover is a type of uneasiness and a type of sickness. Before 1940 in Czech republic there was the system of communism. There was the revolution which brought about the end of communism. There was the arrival of democracy. The revolution is called velvet because it was peaceful. There was no any murder, death and killing. After the arrival of democracy there was the free and fair democratic election for the parliament. The democratic parliament elected Vaclav Havel as the first president of the democratic Czech republic. The present essay is the address speech given by Havel in the name of the nation and the citizens.
When Havel began to work as a president he felt very very weak. He was in a state of confusion, he could not decide what do do and what not. He compares the time before 1940 with poetry and the time after 1940 with prose. Poetry stands close to the imagination and the prose to reality. Before 1940 there is the real challenge of protecting democracy. Reality is always hard and difficulty of rebuilding the country which was destroyed in communism.
Havel compares the present situation with the life of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was the mythical character who had a curse. The boy had to roll up a heavy stone from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill. As soon as the stone was at the top of the hill, it began to roll down. Again Sisyphus had to repeat. It was the tragedy of Sisyphus his labor was meaningless and his life was also meaningless. Havel finds his life and the condition of the country as meaningless as the life of Sisyphus.
He says that before 1940 there was old fear of communism and old fear is now replaced by a new fear. It is the fear of the unknown future. It is not only the personal feeling of Havel. The whole country has the same fear, weakness and confusion. Havel has the fear that he cannot fulfill the gap between the rich and poor people. That is why he says that Czech people should be honest and true to one another. The essay begins in a note of hopeless, but ends in a note of hope. Havel says that the fear of defeat will finally lead to victory. The fear of failure will lead to success.
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