Zen Buddhism In Japan

Art would not usually dare comment on life's ugliness that is all over the world when people are not ready to accept it; it is much more safe to comment on the beauty instead. In fact, being shattered by the loss of a child is not a subject usually addressed by this medium, but Bergman does confront the issue of postpartum depression in Persona. The inner struggles of two very different, yet strikingly similar women erupt in Persona. Elizabeth's withdrawal from society does not protect her from the pain she is feeling over her loss. Alma's attempt to reach Elizabeth only causes her to realize that she is in the same predicament.

In his article, "The World Without, the World Within", Robin Wood maintains that art is always in a process of commenting on life. Of course, life cannot be ignored, no matter how ugly, life goes on. For the artists' that are willing to address public issues one challenge is in the acceptance of the people. Eventually, as new concepts sprout into the consciousness of artists, through their art, they showcase what is happening in our world and how they feel about it. As Wood concedes, "The true artist who feels himself committed to being, in some sense, the conscience of the human race"(Wood 56). In this way, art is like a primitive language that represents history to us; more evidence to this are cave drawings and hieroglyphics.

Wood praises Persona for embracing a changing form of art. If there is something going on in the world, artists feel compelled to comment on it. Wood also views the film as having a strong resemblance to an actual physical work of art "cracking and crumbling even as, half-way through the film, the image cracks and crumbles" (Wood 56). This analogy enables the viewer to have a new experience in avant-garde films by attempting to give the audience something reminiscent of reality.

Wood continues with his praise of Bergman's form; "the opening credit sequence is meant to shock and disturb, and draw the audience in and not to detach" (Wood 56). Drawing people in to an idea is a way of keeping a persona or faÐ*ade intached. If the audience felt detached from the film, it would be easier to recognize the film medium. Instead, we forget about it. In the end we wonder is the film a faÐ*ade, or is the medium the faÐ*ade? In able to identify with the loss of the women in the film the spectator must feel close and involved.

This ambiguity runs through the film, it begins with the projector followed by examples of the projectors uses by the way of cartoons and even during the cartoon played in the beginning sequence the projector has some difficulties functioning properly; which arises again in the middle of the film where there is trouble with the projector again. This action means to wake us up to the issues contained in the film. More ambiguity occurs with the characters as their consciousness' start to fuse together which climaxes until a sequence near the end of the film where the two women's faces actually fuse. This feeling continues towards the end with respect to the dream like scenes that has the spectator trying to figure out where the reality is. Bergman is trying to communicate what these women are physically going through.

Wood insists that this confusion is deliberate. "The breakdown constitutes Bergman's admission that he can't resolve the problems the film has raised" (Wood 65). This is apparent in the middle of the movie when the break down of the film projector occurs. I jumped out of my seat with fear that symbolized to me, also on an emotional level, that something was very wrong with the world until I realized it was a part of the movie I then refocused my fears to film screen. However, this event triggered me into an understanding that Persona tries to affect the world as the two women, Alma and Elizabeth, do by displacing our confidence. After the projector interrupted the film "our sense of security has been irreparably undermined" (Wood 61), giving the spectator a sense of what both the women are going through as their exterior personalities break down and they no longer feel grounded in the world.

Further proof that people cannot withdraw themselves from having an affect on the world comes from Wood's comment "The relationship between the photograph of a public outrage and the psychic cruelty between the two women" (Wood 57). In the second half of the film, Alma tries to control Elizabeth in many different ways and thus becomes the opposite of what Elizabeth represents. Elizabeth is trying to not affect the world where as Alma is trying desperately to affect the world using all of her abilities. Perhaps Alma is also trying to protest the sexual experiences she had with the two young boys where she may have felt dominated, now she wants things to be the opposite where she can dominate in a situation where she feels uncomfortable.

In the scene where Elizabeth cringed from looking at a picture of Nazis gathering women and children, her horror of real life revealed itself. "Alma's gradual realization that in taking over Elizabeth's mind she becomes her, and thus is talking about herself-that the cruelty she is denouncing is something within her" (Wood 64) this event helps in the process of breaking her down and fusing her to the identity of Elizabeth. No matter how determined Alma was to get her to talk, she would not have been able to get through to Elizabeth. In the climax of the film, Alma is dressed in her nurse's uniform "in a final attempt to re-establish the identity that has by now irretrievable crumbled" (Wood 58), as a last failed attempt to try to