Persona (1966 film): Difference between revisions

Another possible reference to psychology is that when Elisabet falls mute, the play she is in is ''Electra'' by [[Electra (Sophocles play)|Sophocles]] or [[Electra (Euripides play)|Euripides]].{{sfn|Sitney|1990|p=143}} According to Wood, Bergman did not focus on [[Greek tragedy]] in his work but the character of [[Electra]] inspired the idea of the [[Electra complex]].{{sfn|Wood|1998|p=251}} Sitney felt that Bergman's choice of play related to "sexual identities", a key concept in psychoanalysis.{{sfn|Sitney|1990|p=143}}

 

The story fits Bergman's motif of "warring women", seen earlier in ''The Silence'' and later in ''Cries and Whispers'' and ''[[Autumn Sonata]]''.{{sfn|Orr|2014|p=67}} According to Professor Marilyn Johns Blackwell, Elisabet's resistance to speaking can be interpreted as resistance to her [[gender role]]. By depicting this tension as experienced primarily by women, Bergman may be said to "problematize the position of woman as other"; the role society assigns women is "essentially foreign to their subjecthood".{{sfn|Blackwell|1997|p=135}} Blackwell wrote that the attraction between Elisabet and Alma and the absence of male sexuality cohere with their identification with each other, creating a doubling that reveals the "multiple, shifting, self-contradictory identity" (a notion of identity that undermines male ideology). The theme of merging and doubling surfaces early in the film, when Alma says that she saw one of Elisabet's films and was struck by the thought that they were alike.{{sfn|Blackwell|1997|p=151}} Blackwell also writes that one of the film's original titles, ''A Piece of Cinematography'', may allude to the nature of representation.{{sfn|Blackwell|1997|p=134}}