his "attempt to reinject vision into the world"

"Dreyer's characters may be visionaries or dreamers in many respects, but the ultimate test he exacts of them is that they express themselves and their visions in words and actions in the world. That is why they are not allowed to go off on their own, to become transparent eyeballs, to ascend into the solipsistic heaven of the avant-gardists, but are asked to engage themselves practically and energetically with groups of others."

"The tragic fear here, which becomes a tragic recognition there, is that to live in the world is to have to give up one's soul."