Biographer Jerry Vermilye wrote that despite experimenting with colour in 1964's "All These Women", "Persona" represented Bergman and Nykvist's return to the "stark black-and-white austerity of earlier chamber pieces". They include "Through a Glass Darkly", "Winter Light" and "The Silence", with Vermilye calling "Persona" a sequel to the "trilogy". Bergman returned to "Through a Glass Darkly"s Fårö for its backdrop, which he used symbolically. According to Professor John Orr, an island setting offered "boldness and fluidity" that brought different dynamics to the drama. Orr wrote that the "island romanticism" was a transition from Bergman's earlier films into "dream and abstraction". Examining the visuals and the depiction of social isolation and mourning, critics Christopher Heathcote and Jai Marshall found parallels to Edvard Munch's paintings.