The Duality of Seeing “Darkly”: Analyzing Bergman’s Karin in Through a Glass Darkly

While many scholars praise Ingmar Bergman’s film trilogy—Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence—they tend to disregard the contradictory views on gender within these films. However, each of these films explores how men and women interact with one another. Though women play a prominent role in each part of the trilogy, Through a Glass Darkly is especially significant because its plot revolves around Karin, a woman who is treated as both powerless and powerful. In fact, the duality of Karin’s existence is the very essence of the film: in the eyes of the men in her family, she is an object used to satisfy male desire; but, in the narrative of the film, she is the autonomous catalyst of male redemption. In Through a Glass Darkly, Bergman intentionally highlights the duality of woman as both object and autonomous being, an idea which is outlined by Slavoj Zizek in his article “Woman as a Symptom of Man”; by emphasizing Karin’s duality, Bergman reveals how Karin’s ontology is both disregarded by the men in her family and embraced by the narrative of the film. While many scholars have written on Karin, their analyses have been oversimplified and reductive. Analyzing Karin’s duality, however, more clearly captures Bergman’s intent: to highlight the ways in which women function as both subject and object in patriarchal world of his films.

For Bergman, the God’s Silence trilogy presents a male-dominated world in which women are silent, or forced into submission, who find their voices by subverting social norms. In Through a Glass Darkly, Karin’s subversive visions of God provide her with an escape from misuse at the hands of the men. Similarly, in Winter Light, Marta, who is symbolic of Martha, suffers and subverts Thomas’ world by still loving him when he pushes her away. In the Bible, Martha is the sister of Mary and Lazarus, and is the first to meet Jesus when he comes to raise Lazarus from the dead. In all later depictions of Martha, her servitude is emphasized. For example, in John 12:2 and Luke 10:40, Martha serves meals to her community. The most significant passage on Martha, however, is John 11:20–27 which states:

Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.¹

Here, Martha’s devotion to God is underscored. Her role as the faithful servant is reflected in Winter Light’s Marta, who attempts to imbue her love interest Thomas, symbolic of doubting Thomas, with the faith he needs to grow in his relationship with God. At the end of the film, Thomas is about to preach a sermon to his congregation, but no one shows up to listen except Marta. Her presence, however, subverts of Thomas’ expectations and, as such, distinguishes her voice from those around her. As such, Marta becomes the center of the film and the character around whom hope flourishes.

While there is also a subversive female character, Anna, in The Silence, she is not symbolic of hope, but rather of pain. Noticeably, Anna, her sister Ester, and her son Johan, are traveling home when they decide to stop in the fictional town of Timoka. While here, Ester isolates herself in her hotel room while Anna...