The final voice over of Pedro in his laboratory regarding his sense of futility and oppression both underscores the meaning of the title of the film and lends it an air of literariness of the original narrative. Just as Martín Santos's novel portrays a Spain that is backward and repressed, with its intellectuals trapped in a time of silence, so too does the cinematographic adaptation by Vicente Aranda. Aranda's version of the absurd world in which Pedro lives does not depend on the subtle ironies of the literary text, however; instead some scenes elicited overt laughter from the audience.