Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 fantasy thriller Pan’s Labyrinth makes use of cinematography and mise-en-scene which creates a dream like setting in the midst of war torn Spain. This blog post is going to focus on Ofelia in particular, and how she is able to make up her own identity throughout the film.
As seen from the film’s opening, Ofelia is very interested in reading, especially fantasy novels. She is constantly reading and alluding to fairytales throughout the film. Ofelia is also repressed by her surroundings including her mother marrying the Captain, moving to the Mill, and all the troubles her Mother has with her health including her death. For a small child, there is a lot on her plate and nowhere for her to turn except in her fantasy novels. It is in this that I believe that Ofelia creates her own identity by transforming her world into that of a fantasy novel, where she is the director and gives herself the character title of the hero. In order to escape her harsh realities of war torn Spain, she creates a story where she can be the hero, saving her mother, and ultimately escaping the reality she is forced into.
Ofelia is given tasks she must accomplish by the faun, Pan. Each task presents her with a challenge that mirrors those in which the Captain is facing. The giant Toad is eating all the bugs under the tree which is preventing it from growing and the eyeless monster won’t allow his tremendous feast to be shared. These mirror those of the rationing conditions the Captain is ordering and is Ofelia projecting her current world into her make believe one. She creates these tasks in order to feel like she can make a difference in her surroundings and be the fantasy hero she has always read about.
When the Captain comes to the labyrinth, the faun is not seen, and only Ofelia is standing there with her half brother. Ofelia is shot and left for dead. I believe that the scene where she sees her true father and is rewarded for her sacrifice is actually depicting her inception into heaven, and not an actual underworld where she is Princess. Throughout the film, Ofelia created herself an identity where she was in the fantasy novels she loved so much and in order for her to escape the realities of her cruel world, her imagination took over, augmenting her reality. Heaven is what Ofelia wanted it to be, a true escape from the real world, where she would be away from the war and instead entwined within the fairy tale of her own creation.
Jasper Golfer 