Editing Cries and Whispers (section)

==={{anchor|Myth and Biblical allusions}}Mythical and biblical allusions===
[[File:LaPieta-MichelAnge detalle.jpg|thumb|alt=Michelangelo's sculpture of Mary holding the dead Jesus|Michelangelo's ''Pietà''; Agnes' death is reminiscent of Jesus' Passion.]]
Although Agnes' apparent resurrection may reflect Anna's fear (or desire), Emma Wilson wrote that it blurred the line between life and dream and might involve supernatural activity.{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=115}} Bergman explained the scene:
{{blockquote|Death is the ultimate loneliness; that is what is so important. Agnes's death has been caught up halfway out into the void. I can't see that there's anything odd about that. Yes, by Christ there is! This situation has never been known, either in reality or at the movies.{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=157}}}}
Törnqvist advised against a literal reading of Agnes rising from the dead, relating it to the sisters' guilt.{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=158}}

According to Sitney, the statue in the prologue may be [[Apollo]] or [[Orpheus]]. If the artistic, doomed Agnes matches Orpheus as well as Bergman, Agnes' mother may correspond to [[Eurydice]] (representing "the green world").{{sfn|Sitney|2014|p=48}} P. Adams Sitney concluded that ''Cries and Whispers'' tells of an "Orphic transformation of terror into art, of the loss of the mother into the musical richness of autumnal color".{{sfn|Sitney|2014|p=51}}

The sisters' Aunt Olga uses the magic lantern to narrate "Hansel and Gretel", and Sitney connected this with "the gift of [[fairy tale]]s—and thereby the psychic-defense machinery for exteriorising infantile and [[Oedipus|Oedipal]] terrors".{{sfn|Sitney|2014|p=49}} In the folk tale "[[Cinderella]]", the wicked stepsisters' bleeding feet as a metaphor for menstruation is magnified by Karin's cutting of her vulva.{{sfn|Sitney|2014|p=50}} Her laugh is reminiscent of the wicked witch in "Hansel and Gretel", as she reacts to the damage her sexuality has done.{{sfn|Sitney|2014|p=50}}

Törnqvist, seeing that Anna prays for her dead daughter while eating an apple, wrote: "The eating of the apple links Anna, whose dead daughter was undoubtedly an illegitimate child, with the [[Eve]] of the Fall, with [[Original Sin]]".{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=148}} According to editor Raphael Shargel, Anna seems oblivious to the sacrilege of snacking immediately after worship and that her choice of food is the [[forbidden fruit]].{{sfn|Shargel|2007|p=xii}}

Törnqvist wrote that Agnes' prolonged pain and death resemble the [[Passion of Jesus]],{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=153}} and Wilson compared the position of Agnes' arms and legs to Jesus' body after his Passion.{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=115}} Gado also saw parallels to the [[crucifixion of Jesus]] and [[flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]] to [[Good Friday]] and a mention of [[Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]] at the end of the film (which he considered ironic, since Twelfth Night is associated with revelation).{{sfn|Gado|1986|p=420}} The magic-lantern show takes place on Twelfth Night.{{sfn|Rueschmann|2000|p=140}} Sitney, Rueschmann, and Irving Singer described the scene where Anna cradles Agnes as reminiscent of ''[[Pietà]]'',{{sfnm|1a1=Rueschmann|1y=2000|1p=138|2a1=Sitney|2y=2014|2p=48|3a1=Singer|3y=2009|3p=196}} with Lanzagorta specifying [[Michelangelo]]'s ''[[Pietà (Michelangelo)|Pietà]]''.<ref name="Lanzagorta">{{cite magazine |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/cries_and_whispers/ |title=Cries and Whispers |last=Lanzagorta |first=Marco |magazine=[[Senses of Cinema]] |date=March 2003 |issue=25 |access-date=9 December 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522062657/http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/cries_and_whispers/ |archive-date=22 May 2017 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>  According to academic Arthur Gibson, the ''Pietà'' rite becomes redemption: "Anna is holding in her arms the pain and loneliness and sin of the world caught up in the innocent Divine Sufferer".{{sfn|Gibson|1993|p=27}}