The Theme of Obedience in Pan's Labyrinth

In analyzing portrayals of women, it is appropriate to begin with the character of Margarita. For, within the text, she embodies the traditionally masculine traits of bravery, resilience, and violence as a means of liberating herself from an existence of abuse and victimhood. Even more, the woman plays upon stereotypes of femininity in order to mask her true nature. The reader witnesses this clever deception in a scene where the character endures a “wholesome thrashing” from her huge, violent, and grizzly bear-like husband, Guerra (81). Although Margarita “[submits] to the infliction with great apparent humility,” her husband is found “stone-dead” the next morning (81). Here, diction such as “submits” and “humility” relate to the traits of weakness, subservience and inferiority that are so commonly expected of women, especially in their relationships with men. Yet, when one

In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.

This essay will be discussing how gender is portrayed in the films Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) and Tacones Lejanos (High Heels), both directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The use of the theatre and performance, along with the audiences that come with it, enables these films to explore the manner in which gender is unstable. Gwynne Edwards writes that Almodóvar often pays tribute to the stage . Almodóvar dedicates All About My Mother “to all the actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women” , which is also relevant to High Heels. He uses the stage setting as a platform to show the instability of gender, not only on a physical stage but also in the characters’ lives: “The dialogue of his films has the cut and thrust, and very often wit, of stage plays. There are also soliloquies, and one of them – in All About My Mother – is even delivered to the audience from the stage of a theatre” . Russell Jackson suggests that this is done as a method for the characters to “find the sometimes onerous ability to deal with and describe their past, and to create a future in the face of death and desertion.” The character ‘La Agrado’ in All About My Mother as well High Heels’ Femme Letal (Letal), will be considered - both the manner in which they carry themselves throughout the film, as well as the their performances on stage. In the following paragraphs, I will illustrate how performance and the stage are vital in Almodóvar’s exploration

The film fails to demonstrate each of the sister’s perspective as they fight against Trujillo’s regime and their personal struggles as women in the Dominican Republic during the 1960s. While the novel focuses on all the sisters’ lives as they fought for freedom and equal rights in the corrupt government, the film focuses on Minerva’s perspective as the first sister who decided to stand up against the unfairness of Trujillo’s rule. The focus on Minerva’s perspective in the film, leads the viewer into believing that the other sisters weren’t as important as Minerva when trying to fight Trujillo, “But then again, here in that little room was the same Patria Mercedes, who wouldn’t have hurt a butterfly, shouting, “Amen to the revolution.” And so we were born in the spirit of the vengeful Lord, no longer His lambs.” (Chapter 8) The quote said by Patria in Chapter 8, shows how she risks her faith when trying to protect the life of the innocent. She would rather throw down a vicious dictator than have young innocent people killed. The film fails to demonstrate the strong themes of women and courage expressed through the novel. The film chooses to skip over many important events, such as Patria knocking over the statue of the Virgin Mary to save her

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.

“Beautiful and Cruel” marks the beginning of Esperanza’s “own quiet war” against machismo (Hispanic culture powered by men). She refuses to neither tame herself nor wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the “table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros gives Esperanza a self-empowered voice and a desire for personal possessions, thing that she can call her own: Esperanza’s “power is her own (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros discusses two important themes: maintaining one’s own power and challenging the cultural and social expectations one is supposed to fulfill. Esperanza’s mission to create her own identity is manifest by her decision to not “lay (her) neck on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain (Cisneros 88).” Cisneros’ rough language and violent images of self-bondage reveal the contempt with which Esperanza views many of her peers whose only goal is to become a wife. To learn how to guard her power

In “Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Transvestite in the New World” by Catalina de Erauso, a female-born transvestite conquers the Spanish World on her journey to disguise herself as a man and inflicts violence both on and off the battlefield. Catalina discovers her hidden role in society as she compares herself to her brothers advantage in life, as they are granted money and freedom in living their own lives. Erauso decides to take action of this act of inequality by forming a rebellion, as she pledges to threaten the social order.The gender roles allotted to both men and women in the Spanish world represent the significance of societal expectations in order to identify the importance of gender in determining one’s position in the social order in the Spanish World.

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

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader gets a sense of what the expectations are of Dominican men and women. Junot Díaz uses Oscar in contrast to the other male characters to present the expectations of the Dominican male. On the other hand, Díaz presents the women in the text, especially Belicia, La Inca, Lola, and Jenni, as strong characters in their own rights, but the male characters, with the exception of Oscar, have a desire to display their masculinity to maintain power over these women. It would be unfair to say that the women bring the abuse unto themselves, but rather it is their culture that makes the abuse acceptable and almost to a certain extent—expected.

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

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.

Lope de Vega’s play touches upon several key components and ideas that were brought up in many of the other stories read throughout the semester. This included the role of gender and how men and women are viewed differently in the Spaniard town of Fuenteovejuna. Another topic included the importance of family, love, and relationships and their connection on loyalty, trust, and personal beliefs. The last major influence found in other literature and in Fuenteovejuna, were the political and religious references made throughout the play. Even though Lope de Vega didn’t make these views obvious, the reader could still pick up on their connotation and the references made towards these specific ideas. With all of this in mind, each of these

She is in power because she is a spy for the rebels and she has a spare key to the storage shed to assist the rebels but she is also used by power because she is the Captain’s maid and has to follow his orders. All the people rebelling against the Captain show that you don’t have to obey the controlling power. Ofelia has no desire to follow Vidal’s authority. She’s an avid reader of fairy tales and she believes in them, that’s what made the fauns story seem so true and good to her.

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.

In Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo, various forms of oppressive behavior are manifested in the town of Comala – these range from the simple, readily apparent abuse of power to keep a population in line, as Pedro Páramo, having complete control over Comala, regularly does, to the very sinister use of religion as a means of reinforcing the patriarchal ideal held by contemporary Mexican society. In describing the oppression of society-at-large, Rulfo shows the sinister relationship that exists between power and the corruption of one’s moral standards through Pedro Páramo and Father Rentería.