Persona has been subject to a variety of interpretations. According to Professor
Thomas Elsaesser, the film "has been for film critics and scholars what climbing
Everest is for mountaineers: the ultimate professional challenge. Besides
Citizen Kane, it is probably the most written-about film in the canon". Critic
Peter Cowie wrote, "Everything one says about
Persona may be contradicted; the opposite will also be true". Academic Frank Gado called Cowie's assessment "patent nonsense", but agreed there was "critical disarray"; editor Lloyd Michaels said that although Cowie exaggerated somewhat, he welcomed the "critical license" to study the film. Michaels summarized what he calls "the most widely held view" of
Persona: that it is "a kind of modernist horror movie". Elisabet's condition, described by a doctor as "the hopeless dream to be", is "the shared condition of both life and film art". Film scholar
Marc Gervais has suggested several possible interpretations: "a metaphor of the subconscious or unconscious", "one personality consuming the other", "the fusing of two personalities into one", or "the different sides of the same personality fleetingly merging". Gado suggested that
Persona was "an investigation of
schizophrenia, a story about lesbian attraction, or a parable about the artist". Bergman said that although he had an idea of what the story meant, he would not share it because he felt that his audience should draw its own conclusions. He hoped the film would be felt rather than understood. The "silence of God" is a theme Bergman explored extensively in his previous work. According to author Paul Coates,
Persona was the "aftermath" of that exploration. Gervais added that
Persona and other Bergman films between 1965 and 1970 were not "God-centred". Gervais also quoted philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche as a guide to understanding
Persona: "Belief in the absolute immorality of Nature, in lack of purpose, and in meaninglessness, is the
affect psychologically necessary once belief in God and an essentially moral order is no longer supportable".
Identity and duality compared Bergman's merged characters to
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Analysis has focused on the characters' resemblance, demonstrated in shots of overlapping faces in which one face is visible and part of another is seen behind it, suggesting the possibility that the characters are one, Jung believed that people project public images to protect themselves, and can come to identify with their personae. An interviewer asked Bergman about the Jungian connotations of the film's title, acknowledging an alternative interpretation that it references
persona masks worn by actors in ancient drama, but saying that Jung's concept "admirably" matched the film. Bergman agreed, saying that Jung's theory "fits well in this case". Coates also connected masks to themes of identity and duality: "The mask is
Janus-faced". Alma's secret is revealed in her orgy monologue, and critic
Robin Wood related it to a combination of shame and nostalgia perhaps indicating the character's
sexual liberation. According to Wood, the incident touched on unfaithfulness and
juvenile sexuality; in Swedish, the young boys are called "
pojkar" and are in need of coaching.
Arnold Weinstein wrote that Alma's story is the hardest-hitting example of the "cracks" in the character's mask, belying her persona of a nurse and leading to a "collapse of self". Her monologue is so intense that it verges on pornography, although there is no depiction of the sexual escapade. Cinema historian
P. Adams Sitney summarized the story as following the course of
psychoanalysis: a referral, followed by the first interview, disclosures,
transference, and the discovery of the patient's root problem. According to Sitney, the story seems to begin from Alma's point of view; after Elisabet compares their hands, her point of view is revealed as the source of the story. Another possible reference to psychology is that when Elisabet falls mute, the play she is in is
Electra by
Sophocles or
Euripides. 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. Sitney felt that Bergman's choice of play related to "sexual identities", a key concept in psychoanalysis.
Gender and sexuality The story contains Bergman's motif of "warring women", seen earlier in
The Silence and later in
Cries and Whispers and
Autumn Sonata. 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". 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. Blackwell also writes that one of the film's original titles,
A Piece of Cinematography, may allude to the nature of representation. Analysts have noted possible lesbian under- and overtones in the film. Alison Darren profiled
Persona in her
Lesbian Film Guide, calling Alma and Elisabet's relationship "halfway between love and hate"; they may come close to having sex in one scene, "though this might easily be an illusion". Scholar
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster interpreted the film in
feminist terms as a depiction of lesbianism, viewing the scene where Elisabet enters Alma's room as seduction. Professor Alexis Luko also felt that the characters' touching and resemblance in the scene, in addition to symbolizing their personalities merging, indicated intimacy and eroticism. Foster believed that Elisabet's gaze presents Alma with questions about her engagement to Karl-Henrik. According to Foster, sexual encounters between men and women are associated with abortion; lesbian romance has an increasingly shared identity. But if
Persona dramatizes a lesbian relationship, it is not clearly favorable, as it is later characterized by narcissism and violence. If lesbianism is considered a stronger version of female friendship, or motherly love, Alma and Elisabet's relationship replaces the depiction of the
Oedipus complex in the prologue when the boy reaches for his mother in vain. According to Jeremi Szaniawski, Bergman's use of both gay and lesbian
homoeroticism in
Persona,
Hour of the Wolf,
Cries and Whispers and
Face to Face was a rebellion against his strict upbringing by
Church of Sweden minister
Erik Bergman. 's depiction of an ancient Greek mask
Art and theatre Persona is the
Latin word for "mask" and refers to a mouthpiece actors wore to increase the audibility of their lines. In Greek drama,
persona came to mean a character, separate from an actor. Bergman often used the theatre as a setting in his films. Elisabet is a stage actress and, according to Singer, is seen in "mask-like makeup" suggesting a "theatrical persona". Singer wrote that Elisabet wears "thick and artificial eyelashes" even when she is not acting. Scholar
Egil Törnqvist noted that when Elisabet is onstage as Electra, she looks away from the theatre audience and breaks the
fourth wall by looking at the camera. According to Törnqvist, Elisabet makes a fist, symbolizing her revolt against the notion of meaningful performance. Singer concluded that although Elisabet develops a very personal relationship with Alma, she cannot shed her
persona as an actress and will remain lonely with "the hopeless dream of being". 's photograph of
Thích Quảng Đức's
self-immolation, which
Carsten Jensen said is related to
Persona themes. According to Singer, Bergman confronts his viewers with "the nature of his art form". Literary critic Maria Bergom-Larsson wrote that
Persona reflected Bergman's approach to filmmaking. Although Alma initially believes that artists "created out of compassion, out of a need to help", she sees Elisabet laugh at performances on a radio program and finds herself the subject of the actress's study. She rejects her earlier belief: "How stupid of me". As Elisabet studies Alma, Bergman studies them both. Michaels wrote that Bergman and Elisabet share a dilemma: they cannot respond authentically to "large catastrophes", such as the
Holocaust or the
Vietnam War. Political columnist
Carsten Jensen identified the Vietnam footage Elisabet sees as the 1963 self-immolation of
Thích Quảng Đức. According to Jensen, photographs of Quảng Đức's death were widely circulated and were used in
Persona. Academic Benton Meadows wrote that Elisabet sees herself in Quảng Đức's death, fearing that it would be a consequence of her silent rebellion. Törnqvist wrote that Elisabet is struck by the truth that the monk is a true rebel, while her rebellion is a cowardly retreat behind a
persona of muteness.
Vampirism by Edvard Munch. Persona''s themes allude to vampirism.
Persona also includes symbolism of
vampirism. In 1973,
Dagens Nyheter critic Lars-Olaf Franzen interpreted Alma as a stand-in for the audience and Elisabet as an "irresponsible artist and vampire". According to the
British Film Institute, Elisabet "vampiristically" devours Alma's personality; the actress is also seen drinking blood from Alma. Gervais wrote that
Persona is "an impressionistic vampire film". Törnqvist called the vampire portrayal "
Strindbergian", connecting it to the spider seen in the prologue and the "fat spider" mentioned in the screenplay (but omitted from the final cut). Although psychologist Daniel Shaw interpreted Elisabet as a vampire and Alma as her "sacrificial lamb", Bergman replied when asked if Alma was entirely consumed: ==Style==