Between Tenderness and Cruelty. The Character of Jack the Ripper in the Early Work of Ingmar Bergman

Abstract

A short tale about one of Jack the Ripper’s earliest childhood memories is the literary debut of Ingmar Bergman from 1944. The character of Jack is often considered as an early alter ego of the Swedish director that represents an extraordinary combination of tenderness and cruelty. As the narrator of the story, Jack reports on the event that took place in his childhood. The story of murder, which will repeat itself in his adult life, can be interpreted as a projection of the author’s fears and anxieties, which were related, among other things, to the birth of his younger sister. Jack’s character will reappear repeatedly in Bergman’s subsequent works, especially in his early films from the 1940s, such as Crisis, and his presence will often be associated with the motifs of macabre, sadism but also love. 

A short tale about one of Jack the Ripper’s earliest childhood memories is the literary debut of Ingmar Bergman from 1944. The character of Jack is often considered as an early alter ego of the Swedish director that represents an extraordinary combination of tenderness and cruelty. As the narrator of the story, Jack reports on the event that took place in his childhood. The story of murder, which will repeat itself in his adult life, can be interpreted as a projection of the author’s fears and anxieties, which were related, among other things, to the birth of his younger sister. Jack’s character will reappear repeatedly in Bergman’s subsequent works, especially in his early films from the 1940s, such as Crisis, and his presence will often be associated with the motifs of macabre, sadism but also love.