"Winter Light" – penetrated certainty. "The Silence" – God's silence – the negative imprint. Therefore, they constitute a trilogy". He later retracted his claim the films form a trilogy. After Bergman's death, filmmaker Woody Allen theorized in "The New York Times" that Ester and Anna represent two conflicting sides of a single woman. English Professor Leo Braudy had earlier made the same argument, identifying Anna with the physical, as she is seen bathing and having sex. He saw Ester as representing language, as she translates and writes, is repulsed by sex, has a poor body and only masturbates. Braudy also referenced the possibility that Anna and Ester have an incestuous relationship. The character of Johan represents the one who perceives. While Bergman referred to the "Silence" of the title as "God's silence," it can also refer to the lack of communication between the protagonists and the people of Timoka. The sole understanding between the characters is in shared appreciation for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In a scene, Johan stares out of the window as a lone tank rolls down the street at night. In "Against Interpretation", Susan Sontag comments, "Again, Ingmar Bergman may have meant the tank rumbling down the street in "The Silence" as a phallic symbol. But if he did, it was a foolish thought". She then continues to say, "Those who reach for a Freudian interpretation of the tank are only expressing their lack of response to what is there on the screen". After World War II, director Ingmar Bergman had visited numerous cities in other countries in Europe. He based the design of "The Silence" on what he had seen in these travels, in particular in Hamburg in 1946, after it had been virtually destroyed by Allied bombing attacks. He also recalled he had been inspired by a visit to a hospital, where he had witnessed an obese, elderly man being carried by four nurses. "The image of him being carried away like a dummy stayed in my mind, although I didn't really know exactly why," he recalled. A throat infection distracted Bergman from developing a story idea for a fairy tale film about a princess and devil, and during recovery he conceived the idea of travelers visiting a foreign city. Initially, the two main characters were supposed to be male. He told Vilgot Sjöman that he converted the characters to female because "he was afraid that the part was too close to himself". While Bergman said he was previously shy about sex in film, he decided on a more explicit approach in this film out of a desire for viewers "to feel, to sense my films".