Reality Pans Labyrinth Essay

In the play, Bernarda can be considered the “regime”, but in reality this could be a symbol of the growing threat of fascism and the first stages of the civil war in 1930s Spain.

This is a comment about the importance of freedom of choice; something which is completely compromised in a Fascist regime. Del Toro affirms ‘I thought it would be great to counterpoint an institutional lack of choice, which is fascism, with the chance to choose, which the girl takes in this movie.’ The scene in which Ofelia refuses to sacrifice her brother is particularly symbolic of her refusal to compromise her morality; in doing so she risks the wrath of the enigmatic faun and of Captain Vidal who is in pursuit of the baby. Moreover, she sacrifices her own desire to escape the brutality around her and realise her fantasy of becoming a princess. Michael J. Bayly maintains that ‘Ofelia’s disobedience of the faun’s demand…proves to be a deeply significant act of courage and integrity. Such acts are beyond the comprehension of her step-father and the world of fascist mythology he seeks to both build and embody.’ Del Toro states, ‘la desobediencia es totalmente lo contrario del fascismo’ and this act illustrates the stark contrast between the humanity and virtue demonstrated by Ofelia and the blind obedience of the fascists. Del Toro explains ‘Lo que me interesa del fascismo es justamente que es un hoyo negro de la voluntad. Es un sistema que no necesariamente es único, pero absuelve la

Ophelia was such an innocent character. She was young and naïve. Ophelia was faced with many dilemmas. She was in a relationship with Prince Hamlet, who was very distracted and eventually went mad himself. Ophelia’s madness started with an overbearing, over protective father. He controlled Ophelia and used her with out thinking of her feelings, “I must tell you, you do not understand yourself so clearly…What is

The director Guillero Del Torro uses many motifs and parallels in his film Pan's Labyrinth. The most obvious parallel in the film is the parallel between the real world and the fantasy world of the character Ofelia. Both worlds are filled with danger. At any second in both of these worlds your life could be lost. Del Torro separates the real world from the fantasy world with many visual motifs.

Pan’s Labyrinth, originally titled El laberinto del fauno, was published in 2006 by the Spanish director Guillermo del Toro. The story is set in the year 1944, in the country-side of a post-Civil War Spain. A young and imaginative girl named Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, travels with her pregnant mother, Carmen Vidal, who is very ill; in order to meet and live with her stepfather, a cruel and sadistic man named Capitan Vidal (Sergi Lopez). During the first night of their stay, Ofelia meets a fairy that leads her to a pit in the center of a labyrinth where they soon meet a faun (Doug Jones). The faun tells Ofelia that she is a princess from a faerie kingdom

Ophelia started acted insane when Hamlet frantically ran up to her, grabbed her arms and shook her because he had seen the ghost of King Hamlet. “He took me by the wrist and held me hard. Then goes he to the length of all his arm, And, with his other hand thus o’er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. Long stayed he so. At last, a little shaking of mine arm, And thrice his head thus waving up and down,  He raised a sigh so piteous and profound As it did seem to

Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro delivers a unique, richly imagined epic with Pan’s Labyrinth released in 2006, a gothic fairy tale set against the postwar repression of Franco's Spain. Del Toro's sixth and most ambitious film, Pan’s Labyrinth harnesses the formal characteristics of classic folklore to a 20th Century period. Del Toro portrays a child as the key character, to communicate that children minds are not cemented. Children avoid reality through the subconscious imagination which is untainted by a grown-up person, so through a point of an innocent child more is captured. The film showcases what the imagination can do as a means of escape to comfort the physical trials one goes through in

"Labyrinthine. The very sound of that word sums it up-as slippery as thought, as perplexing as the truth, as long and convoluted as a life" (Cooper 347). That was how Bernard Cooper ended his insightful and thought-provoking essay "Labyrinthine." Those words haunt me to this very day. Cooper had perfectly described life through the pronunciation of one lone word, "labyrinthine" (630). It was through a trivial infatuation, one that started when he was seven, that Cooper was able to make such a powerful observation. He loved to solve mazes, and he loved to create them even more. He was so fascinated with mazes that it’s no surprise he can so easily come up with an observation like this. This only proves to

When you see Pan’s Labyrinth starring Ivana Baquero as Ofelia and Sergi Lopez as Captain Vidal, prepare to take your emotions for a ride. As the movie is a fantasy/drama film set in Spain of 1944, during the civil war. Yet, it still captivates its audiences with its selection of an unconventional fairytale. While, keeping some of the same elements such as a princess and fairies of a traditional fairytale. Not to mention the sudden dark twists and turns of a ruthless stepfather, heartbreaking losses, and the horrifying unseemly creatures which the legendary lost princess Ofelia must prevail. While, taking on an expedition to completing three dangerous tasks.

El Laberinto Del Pan, or Pan’s Labyrinth, is based on the turbulence that occurred after the Civil War. It is set in post-Civil War Spain, in 1944, after the victory of the fascist Nationalists led by General Franco. Though the war had ended, many republican rebels were still striking back against the new oppressive government. Other citizens were exiled, or attempted to flee the country. A large portion of those that did rebel hid in more remote areas of Spain, such as the region of Navarra in Northern Spain, where Pan’s Labyrinth takes place.

Furthermore, when the faun gives her a mandrake root as a remedy for her mother’s illness, it demonstrates how Ophelia uses escapism as an outlet for her fear, and as a means of feeling like she has some control over whether her mother lives or dies. However, when the mother burns the mandrake root shouting, “Magic does not exist. Not for you, me or anyone else,” and then immediately dies during childbirth, it represents how

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth tells the story of Ofelia who experiences magical encounters in this fantasy. One night, a fairy leads her into a hidden labyrinth where she meets a faun who tells her that she is a lost princess. He assigns her three dangerous tasks to prove herself and to claim immortality alongside her father. Meanwhile, her step-father, the captain of a merciless, violent army in fascist Spain attempts to stop a guerrilla uprising. Ofelia struggles to meet the demands of the faun before time runs out. Through this quest, she interacts with creatures and challenges that create a monstrous environment.

This is the woman she might have become – warm, tolerant and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man; her father has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother: she is terribly lonely. (73-74)

In the realistic story, the decisive colors drawing the view of story is old-newspaper yellow and dark grey, which implies the atmosphere of sadness and lurking danger. Not much of Spain outside the mill is referred in the story but the war between political groups here can represent the overall country’s condition. The influence of military is strong and almost encroaching on the natural order of Spain. However, the fascist seem not to belong to this place. They wear steely blue gray uniform, which is unnatural in the forest, while the rebels wear earthy browns connecting to soul of mountain. The fascists' headquarters is lying in a small mill, and surrounded by trees and forest, the rebels' habitat. It states the implication: despite the power of military, the fascists are still the small pocket of dry land in the midst of rising communism, one day they will face to the failure.

as these lines relate back to the development of Ophelia’s character, as well as play an important role in the plot of the play, and a major conflict that is portrayed.