Editing Cries and Whispers (section)

===Family and detachment===
[[File:1903 Ludwig Richter.jpg|thumb|alt=Elaborate ink-on-paper drawing of Hansel and Gretel and a witch|Illustration of "[[Hansel and Gretel]]" by [[Ludwig Richter]]; like ''Cries and Whispers'', the fairy tale suggests familial abandonment.]]
Professor [[Egil Törnqvist]] examined the film's title. The young Maria whispers to her mother, and Karin and Maria whisper to each other as they bond. According to Törnqvist, "The cries relate to the opposite emotions: anguish, impotence, loneliness".{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=152}}{{efn|name="Title"|Bergman claimed the title was derived from a description of the music of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]].<ref name="Nyrerod"/> Editor [[Ken Dancyger]] alternatively related the title to the sounds one makes when one dies.{{sfn|Dancyger|2013|p=385}} }} Professor Emma Wilson described the family's predicament, with Karin feeling endangered by touch and Maria seeking an "erotic" touch. However, Maria is repelled by Agnes' decay and her dead body.{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=112}} Rueschmann explained Karin's repulsion to touch as a result of her degree of isolation and restraint.{{sfn|Rueschmann|2000|p=141}} The scene where Anna cradles Agnes suggests that touch and sensation are soothing, despite the "opaque" question of their relationship, which may be comparable to sisterhood.{{sfn|Wilson|2012|p=112}}

The [[magic lantern]] show the sisters enjoy is "[[Hansel and Gretel]]", which reveals Agnes' feelings of abandonment and her mother's favouring of Maria; according to Rueschmann, the [[Brothers Grimm]] story of sibling unity contrasts the sisters' estrangement.{{sfn|Rueschmann|2000|p=140}}{{efn|name="Lantern"|Bergman recalled receiving his own [[magic lantern]] at age 10, from his aunt.{{sfn|Steene|2005|p=32}} In his autobiography, he described it as personally significant, and also depicted a magic lantern in ''[[Fanny and Alexander]]'' (1982).{{sfn|Sitney|2014|p=49}}}} Cinema historian [[P.&nbsp;Adams Sitney]] wrote that  Hansel and Gretel's parents abandoned them in the forest (symbolism), and Agnes' cancer is the equivalent of the witch in the Brothers Grimm tale.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Color and Myth in Cries and Whispers |journal=Film Criticism |last=Sitney |first=P. Adams |date=Spring 1989 |volume=13 |issue=3 |page=40}}</ref> Karin's cutting of her vulva means that her husband will not have sex with her, and the [[red wine]] symbolises blood from the womb. Törnqvist wrote that Karin's transfer of blood from her vulva to her mouth means that she will neither have sex nor speak, and preventing communication reinforces loneliness.{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=157}} Sitney wrote that the family is most united when reading [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[The Pickwick Papers]]'', which describes "male solidarity and chicanery, threatened by female plots for marriage".{{sfn|Sitney|2014|pp=48-49}} According to Frank Gado, detachment returns after Agnes' funeral. Anna is dismissed without warmth or sympathy, and the men deny her monetary rewards despite years of service. Maria also rejects "sentimental appeals" from Karin.{{sfn|Gado|1986|p=420}}

Film scholar [[Marc Gervais]] wrote that ''Cries and Whispers'' has no definitive solution of whether suffering and death have any meaning, citing the pastor who expresses his own doubts and fears when he eulogises Agnes. Gervais likened this to the protagonist of Bergman's earlier ''[[Winter Light]]'', Bergman's own conflicted feelings and his relationship to his father, [[Erik Bergman (Lutheran minister)|Erik]], a minister of the [[Church of Sweden]].{{sfn|Gervais|1999|pp=120-121}}{{efn|Earlier with his 1963 film ''[[Winter Light]]'', which had a clergyman protagonist struggling with his faith while seeing suffering in the world, Bergman took the rare step of sharing the screenplay with Erik, and boasted that the latter read it three times. Bergman was possibly trying to communicate that he understood Erik, though the name of the character, Ericsson (son of Erik), may indicate the character represents Bergman more than his father.{{sfn|Gado|1986|pp=281-282}} }} According to Gervais, the ending presents Bergman's solution: a touch, on certain occasions, can make life worthwhile.{{sfn|Gervais|1999|p=121}} Törnqvist compared the ending to that of Bergman's 1957 ''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]''; it "points to the past, to a paradisaic existence in ''this'' life, to the communion inherent in childhood that has later been lost".{{sfn|Törnqvist|1995|p=152}}