the ending (spoilers)

Firstly its a shame that this board dosent get more attention. I just finished watching it and loved it, might be my favorite Bergman so far so I figured I would share my interpretation of the ending.

I think his faith was renewed at the end, but i also dont think Bergman presents faith in such a hopeful way. Faith is presented as a life of continuous self doubt and denial. Life really doesnt make any sense for how could god exists when there is so much pain and violence in the world. People are constantly questioning and running to the pastor for answers and the pastor will spout some drivel that will cure their doubt for the time being but the questions will always return.

The death of his wife is what killed his faith all together and then he was met with a world that made sense. There is no god and the questioning ends, reality makes sense. But this also ended up being a very cold, meaningless and empty reality that caused him to isolate himself from those that loved him.

When Marta says "youll never make it alone" i think he began to realize she was right and if he continued in that way he would ultimately end up like jonas, so at the last second he asked her to go with him.

At this point I think he was at the height of his struggle with both these views and when he heard Algots speech he related to it very much. His abandonment and pain was much the same as Christ's and he realized that this pain is far to much to bear so he decides to continue with the drivel and the denial of faith to mask the pain of an empty existence.

I think both views are presented as being pretty bleak but its all about finding out which one works for you and enables you to love.




before you can get rolling, your life makes a beeline for the drain.