An Interpretive Reflection of Elisabeth’s Pregnancy
At the opening of Ingmar Bergman’s movie Persona, a series of what appear to be random images flash across the scene. Some grizzly, some grotesque, and some downright unsettling, the images are spliced together to form a peculiar sequence of events. To the unobservant, these images appear to have no relevance to the drama and dialogue between the protagonists Nurse Alma and Elisabeth Vogler. However, if viewed as a “dream sequence,” these images become symbols that present a timeline of events, emotions, and thoughts all relevant to the dynamics between Elisabeth, her husband, and her child.
According to Carl Jung, “the unconscious aspect of any event is revealed to us in dreams, where it appears not as a rational thought, but as a symbolic image” (Jung, 5). Meaning, the pictures featured in our dreams are representative of our unconscious emotions, actions, and reactions. Furthermore, Jung also disputes Freud’s use of “free association.” Jung believes rather than applying universal meanings to universal symbols, one should look at a dream itself to investigate its deeper meaning (Jung, 11-12). By approaching the “dream sequence” which opens Persona using Jung’s method of symbolism, one can observe a timeline using nearly fifteen different symbols that can be interpreted to create a series of events and emotions that represent the relationship between Elisabeth Vogler and her child, with intermittent references to her husband.
As the “dream sequence” begins, the first image is the starting of an old film projector. This is representative of the fertilization of Elisabeth’s eggs by her husband. Elisabeth is now officially pregnant. However, the film appears to experience a few touch-and-go moments before running smoothly. This is symbolic of Elisabeth’s reluctance to allow herself to become pregnant. As Alma later describes in the movie, the sole reason for Elisabeth’s pregnancy was because of a comment made to her by an acquaintance at a party. This acquaintance told Elisabeth she had everything a woman could want, except motherhood. To truly have “everything,” Elisabeth reluctantly became pregnant.
Following this image is a “skeleton” jumping out of a toy box. At this point in Elisabeth’s pregnancy, the fertilized egg is developing into a human being, represented by the skeleton, the basic structure of life. In black and white, this image is vaguely reminiscent of an ultrasound, which depicts the forming infant. This scene quickly changes tone as a figure begins to beat the skeleton. Jung would say this is representative of the first of several abortion attempts. Again, as described later in the movie by Alma, Elisabeth deeply regretted her decision to birth a child. In an attempt to undo her decision, Elisabeth tried multiple times to abort her child. The image of a person beating the skeleton symbolizes the first attempt of abortion.
Following this short sequence, a scene featuring a big, hairy spider appears. Jung would argue it was at this point in Elisabeth’s pregnancy that Mr. Vogler becomes emotionally dead to Elisabeth. In some species of spiders, the female will eat the male after mating. This is representative of how Elisabeth shuts out her own husband during her pregnancy. Nurse Alma describes later in Persona how Elisabeth presented a false, cheerful front to the world, including her husband, during the pregnancy. Figuratively, Elisabeth killed her husband by shutting him out of her life during her pregnancy. This is symbolized by the spider in the “dream sequence.”
Following the spider in the sequence is the slaying of a lamb. This image represents Elisabeth’s second attempt to abort her child. Numerous references in the Bible appear to the killing of lambs. This “slaying of the innocent” represents Elisabeth’s second attempt to rid her body of an innocent child.
The next image depicted is particularly gruesome. A hand is crucified by a nail, and then repeatedly pounded in. According to Jung, this could represent, in Elisabeth’s point of view, her sacrifice of herself. Elisabeth, by consciously and actively allowing herself to become pregnant, was sacrificing her body and spirit to become the woman that had everything. It is not coincidental that this is the image immediately following Elisabeth’s last abortion attempt. Though, as Alma tells the audience while speaking to Elisabeth, Elisabeth wishes the baby to die during birth, she has stopped actively trying to kill it. Elisabeth has resigned herself to an emotional death of herself by her decision to reluctantly become pregnant.
In the following scene, naked and bare trees in an empty forest are particularly ambiguous. However, Jung might argue that the trees are representative of the damage that Elisabeth has done to her body. According to medical research, women who attempt a home abortion are at high risk of becoming sterile. The “barren” trees symbolize Elisabeth’s “barren” womb. After the birth of the child she is currently carrying, it is likely that Elisabeth will not be able to carry another child. The scene immediately following, in conjunction with this one of barren trees, further stresses this point. The following scene features a high, staked fence. This threshold is one that cannot be recrossed; once in, there is no going back. Elisabeth has reached a point in which she cannot undo the damage she has done to her body. The results of her actions are irreversible. Even if later in her life she does wish to have a child, it is likely impossible. It can also be suggested that Elisabeth has reached a trimester in her pregnancy in which there is no turning back. At this point, around the late second trimester, a woman whose unborn child has died must still deliver the dead child, or else have it surgically removed from her body. According to the timeline of the “dream sequence,” Elisabeth is nearing this last third of her pregnancy. Even if she had succeeded in aborting her child at this point, she must still go through the delivery process or a surgery to rid her body of the child.
Next in the “dream sequence” is a large pile of dirty, slushy snow. According to Jung, this image can foreshadow the birth of Elisabeth’s deformed child. When one normally conjures the image of snow, it is of the pristine white flakes that are unmarred and beautiful; similar to the image of a healthy infant that every parent desires. However, the dirty snow featured in Elisabeth’s dream sequence symbolisms the birth of a deformed child. Furthermore, the environment in which the dirty snow is set leads the audience to believe that the snow was dirty by human presence; the snow is pushed off a sidewalk, next to a street with a house in the immediate background. This spoiled scene alludes to human presence. This symbolizes that it was the interference of Elisabeth that marred what would have presumably been an otherwise healthy baby.
At this point in the “dream sequence,” one can deduce that the birth of the child is near. However, a long series of dead bodies are featured. Although Elisabeth gave up her attempts to abort her child, she, as Alma details, still wishes it to die upon its birth. These dead corpses symbolize the wishful thinking of Elisabeth immediately before the birth of her child.
As the corpses flash across the screen, the camera occasionally focuses on specific body parts. Near the end of this corpse sequence, one of the body parts zoomed in on is a set of woman’s lips. Because the woman is lying down, her lips appear vertical. This image is reminiscent of the female genitalia through which the child must pass to enter the world. In conjunction with the next scene, the birthing process is complete. This next scene features one of these “corpses” awakening. This particular corpse is that of a child, who stretches out from its fetal position on the bed in order to start investigating the world around him. This entire scene symbolizes the birth of Elisabeth’s child.
Soon after this child awakens and investigates, he pulls on a pair of reading glasses, opens a book, and begins to read. This symbolizes an all-seeing, all-knowing child. Every child is born with the instinct to reach out to the voice of the woman who has supported him for nine months. Elisabeth’s child, though physically deformed, is no different. He immediately knows that it is his mother’s love he desires. As Alma describes to the audience, Elisabeth’s child looked to Elisabeth with love and affection, even though it was not appreciated, let alone reciprocated. Again, this scene, in conjunction with the next, supports this point. The child reaches out its hand and starts running it across the space in front of him. Beneath his hand is the face of a woman, presumably his mother. The child is reaching out for his mother, both symbolically and literally.
Unfortunately, the scene develops into one of death. The eyes of the woman close, even though the child is still reaching out. This symbolizes the death of Elisabeth’s soul and spirit. She turns her back on her child and allows herself to emotionally die. Elisabeth enters her world of silence.
At this point in Persona, the opening credits roll. However, one does not need watch the movie to determine the cause of Elisabeth Vogler’s silence. By using Jung’s method of interpreting the symbols presented to us in our dreams, one can observe all of Elisabeth’s actions and emotions, unconscious or conscious, in chronological order from the point of fertilization through the birth of her child.
