Throughout the 1963 Ingmar Bergman film, Winter Light, the entire plot of the film can relate to the conceptual tools provided by Diane Raymond’s text, Existentialism and the Philosophical Tradition. As the plot of the film develops, Ingmar Bergman illustrates the philosophical conceptions that exists within the film through characters such as Marta, Tomas or Jonas, through the harsh winter setting and through the character’s actions and dialogues. Through the development of the character Tomas in the film, people can explore the conception of the “death of God” and how “God’s Silence” lead to secularization in Tomas’s society. However, the loss of faith in Tomas and his values and belief he grew up with can also contribute to another philosophical idea known as alienation, which is being detached from society and the social norms of their society. Lastly, the concept of the problem of despair and how despair relates to the characters in the film with the three main existential responses, Theism, Nihilism, and Existential Revolt is explored.
The notion of “death of God” and secularization is quite prevalent throughout the film especially through the characters, Tomas, Marta, and Jonas. So, what is meant by the phrase “the Death of God?” The phrase “the death of God” refers to the idea of someone with faith in God abandons the traditional beliefs of God that are supposed to be followed believes that God ceases to exist. This leads to the secularization of a society such as the one Tomas is living in and the society loses it religious significance in its cultural and social aspects. From the beginning of the film with the communion, Bergman portrays the character’s actions as robotic-like and mechanical like they were forcing themselves to fulfill God’s wishes. This creates a sense of falsehood that exists like the characters are forcing themselves to do the ritual, creates a question whether they have faith in God or just “going with the flow.” For instance, when Tomas asks Marta why did she come to the communion even though she is an atheist, Marta replied sort of something like to get a sense of community. From the onset of the film, one can see the loss in objective meaning in someone’s faith; it illustrates a sense of forcefulness that runs among the characters like they are forcing themselves to come to Church and worship God. However, Tomas experiences the most change regarding his faith from the onset of the film till the end. From the first conversation Tomas has with Jonas, Tomas tells Jonas that we must have faith in God and trust him even though he may become remote. Clearly, this implies that there is still some sort of religious significance on Tomas. However, after the second conversation with Jonas, Tomas realizes that he does not believe in God; in fact, he used his belief in God to overlook the atrocities of human suffering, which raised a question if God is “all good” then why is there evil? However, after the conversation, Jonas goes and kills himself and Tomas in his sickness comes to a conclusion that God does not exist and that he is free. As we see towards the end of the film at the second service, there is no one at the church besides Marta and Algot which signifies the loss of religious significance in the society. Clearly, people lost faith in God and abandon God’s beliefs by not going to church, which symbolizes the death of God and secularization.
Alienation is very prominent throughout the film. But, what is alienation? As Diane Raymond put it in, alienation “connotes feelings of estrangement or detachment from self and from others” (Raymond 42). Alienation has different meanings to different people, and the way one can fix that “alienation” is different from what many others believe. For instance, religious spokespeople believe that alienation results when someone loses faith in God or is separated from the social norms that exist in that individual’s society. However, the solution to the proposed problem of alienation is to become faithful and spiritual and reconnect with the people of the church. This is most relevant in the Ingmar Bergman’s film, Winter Light. However, there are three types of alienation that are discussed by Diane Raymond. Number one being alienation from oneself which is a type of alienation in which there is an inner fight between two identities for the control of one’s “body.” According to Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a scientist became an evil counterpart of himself because of a serum he created that he was testing on himself. As Diane Raymond points out, that Mr. Hyde, or the evil counterpart, is in fact “not at all alien to Jekyll but is rather another expression of his own self” (Raymond 45). Basically, Raymond is saying that humans have a consciousness that has the capacity to doubt ourselves and question reality and life in general which results in a struggle of which concepts to accept within oneself. This alienation results when one or more of one’s beliefs get challenged sending an individual to question their values or identity, alienating oneself into two selves and fight for the struggle of the individual’s soul. One can see this in the character Tomas from Bergman’s film Winter Light. When Tomas has the first conversation with another character Jonas, whose struggling with the idea of the Chinese making nukes and possibly annihilating human kind, Tomas suggests to Jonas that “we must trust in God” even though God may become remote. However, before the second conversation Tomas has with Jonas, Bergman illustrates the struggle of faith within Tomas which is he identified by and the two identities that are fighting for control within him: one religious identity which presumably has faith in God and one identity that does not believe in God and is “free.” However, after the second conversation Tomas has with Jonas, he confesses to Jonas that he does not believe in God and that he only became a pastor to please his parents and to overlook at the horrific atrocities happening. Philosophically, one can take notice that Tomas’s values are challenged after the death of his wife and this doubt creates two identities within the whole individual which are fighting for the control of his “whole body.” Being alienating from others is the second type of alienation that Raymond discusses. Basically, Raymond states that we are all humans all the same species yet we are so different. For instance, all tigers are the same species of tigers there is no difference between each tiger. However, with humans even though we are the same species, “we speak different languages, have different cultures, espouse different values and construct different realities” (Raymond 47). Even though we are all homo sapiens, we are alienated from each other because we do not know what is going on through our minds or what we are feeling or what our consciousness says about a certain action. Connecting this to Winter Light, during the communion, even though all of the church members are present, one does not know what is going on through each other person’s mind. For instance, during the communion, the audience does not know that Tomas is having an internal struggle of faith and belief until he has the conversation with Jonas, or one does not know that Jonas is afraid or nervous about the fact that the Chinese are developing nukes until the conversation Jonas and Tomas have. Furthermore, this type of alienation is most seen with Tomas and Marta because Marta loves and wants to have a relationship with Tomas, but she does not know the fact that he hates her very badly until Tomas goes on the meanest dialogue in cinema history and basically says why he hates Marta. Both Marta and Tomas are humans and both live in the same society, but do they in fact really know what is going on with each other until one of them talks about their problem, basically alienating each other. Lastly, alienation from nature suggests that we have disconnected with nature and replaced with a technological, humanized world that we live in today. The world was once seen as “full of meaning and purpose,” but now it is a “product of the scientific revolution and the mechanistic principles” (Raymond 46). Basically, we are alienating ourselves with nature to move towards a mechanistic industrial world. Clearly, this can be seen with the film Winter Light with the conversation Jonas had with Tomas. Jonas was contemplating whether this life is meaningful if the Chinese are just going to build nukes and possibly erase humanity. Due to the scientific and technological revolutions, people have lost the objective meaning of life because technology is changing how people live and therefore changing the values of many people. For instance, Jonas responded to this alienation from nature and the movement towards a technological world as losing meaningfulness in his life and he lost faith in God because of the atrocities that have happened and committed suicide. Clearly, alienation is a prominent theme throughout the film Winter Light.
Despair recognizes that our existence and life is fragile, but provides us to live authentically meaning give one’s life meaning. According to Diane Raymond, there are three existential responses to despair: Theism, Nihilism, and Revolt. According to existential theists, a “life limited to contingency would be meaningless” (Raymond 40). Basically, Theism is that the contingent world, the world we live in, is meaningless and that there is a world beyond this contingent world known as the world of perfection to aspire towards. Theists believe that a “life of faith provides a way out of this hopeless bind” (Raymond 40). Theists basically believe that there is a “heaven” or world of perfection beyond this world of materials and following faith will get you there. Nihilism is a counterargument to theism. Nihilist believe that there is no meaning in the contingent world and that there is no world beyond it, so what is the point of living making suicide a logical option. Lastly, the point of Existential Revolt is to “not resign ourselves to suicide or to hedonism or even to hope for some afterlife” (Raymond 41). Existential Revolt is the idea that there is no world beyond the contingent world, but the world we live in has meaning to it and embraces the limited projects to create meaning. Both Jonas and Tomas recognize the problem of despair in their lives, but they respond to despair differently. In the beginning, both Jonas and Tomas had some sort of theism in their lives and believed that religion may solve their problem of despair; however, it is soon that both of the characters recognized their existence and respond to that existence and meaning of life differently. For example, Jonas recognized that life in the contingent world is futile because the Chinese are developing nukes that may possibly eradicate humanity, and he lost faith in God because “God” abandoned him in the face of human suffering, so Jonas responded to his despair with Nihilism and committed suicide because there’s no meaning for him in the world and world beyond this material world. Tomas, on the other hand, responded to his problem of despair differently. After Tomas’s second conversation with Jonas and the realization he came out with after that he does not believe in God and he is “free,” Tomas rejected the idea that there is a world of perfection beyond this world. He does, however, respond to his problem of despair with Existential Revolt that the fact there is meaning in this world, but rejects the notion of the world beyond this world. Tomas recognizes this after the conversation he has with Algot. He realizes that there is still something to live for because he feels solitary with his people and there is still meaning to this life. Clearly, the problem of despair is recognized by Tomas and Jonas, but how they respond to their despair is quite different.
Indeed, Ingmar Bergman’s film Winter Light explores the philosophical concepts of the death of God and secularization, alienation from oneself, others, and nature, and the problem of despair and the three existential responses. Clearly, Diane Raymond’s conceptual tools can be used to illustrate a new philosophical perspective on Bergman’s film.