Pan's Labyrinth Essay

Magic and reality are often considered as two extremes on the opposite ends of a spectrum. And while they are so different, when presented in the form of a fairytale, they hold many parallels. Pan’s Labyrinth addresses real-world socio-political issues. Guillermo Del Toro uses the ambiguity of magic and the magical characters as a way of uncovering a common thread between reality and imagination, using them as parallels to express the cold adult world and pure childhood innocence. It is a way of offering Ofelia’s perspective about the revolution as a child growing up in the fascist regime while simultaneously using imagination as a way of transforming reality. Magic seems to be having real-world implications at various instances, but at the

same time, the clash of reality and magic at the end of the film makes us doubt the verity of the very fabric of Ofelia’s fantasy. In Ofelia’s fantasy, goodness prevails as she successfully completes her tasks and achieves her goals while, in reality, the true victor of the clash is uncertain as the purely innocent or truly evil people end up dying by each other’s hands. Thus, the film leaves the audience questioning, not over the innocent nature of magic, but the harsh nature of reality.
The movie seems to present many parallel notions: reality and imagination, cold adult world and warm childhood fantasies, wonderland and political revolution. The events of Pan’s Labyrinth take place in post war Fascist Spain. The entire movie is set in and around the forest. Traditionally, in fairy tales, the forests are where all the magic occurs, but Del Toro cleverly uses the forest as a parallel to present a setting of rebellion against the fascist regime while magic and the various magical characters are tools to obtain common ground with reality by exposing the true nature of Fascist Spain and its leaders in their various forms. Captain Vidal is an ideal representation of the cruel and inhuman leaders of fascist Spain who only torment and to kill the innocent. The two creatures of Pan’s Labyrinth, the Giant Toad and the Pale Man, can be viewed as presentations of Vidal’s monstrosity and the fascist leaders, as seen through Ofelia’s eyes. The giant toad lives in the tree and is killing it due to its uncontrolled appetite for bugs. The toad represents the fascist leaders who have more than enough to eat themselves at the cost of the starving majority. In another scene, we see Vidal’s soldiers lining up the people to distribute rations and they declare that no one shall starve, because in Franco’s Spain “there is not a single home without fire or bread.” (Pan’s Labyrinth) However, the townspeople receive little to eat and food distribution is strictly controlled even though the storehouse is full. Even when Ofelia defeats the toad, she shouts, “Aren’t you ashamed living down here, eating all these bugs… and growing fat while the tree dies?” (Pan’s Labyrinth) By transforming imagination into reality, Del Toro uses Ofelia’s fantasies as a way of channeling the voices of the common folk about the injustices against the people.
The Pale man is another magical creature used as a symbol representing Vidal’s gluttonous nature.

It resembles a sick old creature presiding over a bountiful feast, but apparently it eats innocent children. Even the arrangement of the Pale Man’s dining room is the same as Vidal’s: a long rectangular table with a chimney in the back and the monster sitting at the head of the table. Not only does the sickly Pale Man represent Vidal and the fascist leaders, but it also represents the sickly state of Spain because of the suffering of the masses. Like the Pale Man, Vidal also feeds himself at the cost of innocent people. He cuts the people’s rations, presumably to hurt the rebels, but at the same time holds a feast for himself, and in many scenes, he is seen relishing his stockpiled tobacco. Magic and reality are skillfully associated in these scenes. Real or imagined, Vidal and these creatures are symbols of Fascism, of unrestrained oppression, and Del Toro brilliantly utilizes the nature of Ofelia’s magical escapades to project real socio-political

issues.
Magic is only seen to be occurring around Ofelia while the other characters in the movie are unaware of it. But while the nature of magic throughout the movie is ambiguous, it does seem to have some real-world implications. A prime example of this is Ofelia’s mother, who is ill and is having rough pregnancy until Ofelia hides the magical mandrake root under her bed, which causes her condition to improve remarkably. Even the doctor is surprised and is unsure of the cause behind her sudden improvement. When the mandrake is later discovered by her father and thrown into the fire, her condition suddenly deteriorates and she goes into premature labor and dies while giving birth to her son. Another instance of magic having a real-world effect is when Ofelia manages to escape the locked attic using the door made by the magic chalk. Normally she should not have been able to escape the locked attic, but she did. This was one of the clearest scenes showing magic with real-world implications. There are many other subtle instances throughout the movie showing the real-world effect. One such scene is towards the end of the movie when Ofelia, after abducting her brother reaches a dead end in the labyrinth. We see the walls of the labyrinth parting so that Ofelia can escape from Vidal who was right behind her. Ofelia could not have retraced her steps in the labyrinth as she would have undoubtedly run into Vidal and as such there is no other explanation to her escape other than the walls parting. When Ophelia tells Mercedes about the fawn, she replies by saying that “My mother always told me to be wary of fauns.” (Pan’s Labyrinth) This hints at Mercedes’ belief in magic even though she is not actively exposed to it. There is also the final scene of the film where the audience sees a flower blooming on the tree that Ofelia saved from the toad while the narrator says that Ofelia “left behind small traces of her time on earth visible only to those who know where to look.” (Pan’s Labyrinth)
While Del Toro used many instances to hint that magic had real-world implications, he never strays from the ambiguity of the nature of magic. The ending of the movie is interesting as we see reality and fantasy collide with Ofelia’s death. Captain Vidal cannot see the Faun when he sees Ofelia in the Labyrinth.. This leaves the audience wondering if the faun was ever real or if it intentionally hid from Vidal. Del Toro uses these two facts to put out the possibility that all of Ofelia’s magical adventures and all the magical creatures, including the faun were a product of her imagination and her way of understanding and coping with the fascist regime. After Ofelia’s dies, she finds herself in the Underworld where she meets her “actual” parents from the Underworld and the mother in the Underworld being Carmen draw more questions about the truth of Ofelia’s perspective. Del Toro forces the audience to consider the possibility that Ofelia imagined her own grand and beautiful world. He uses these particular set of scenes to plant doubt about the nature of magic in the audience’s mind and further strengthen the possibility of Ofelia’s fantasies being a way for her as an eleven-year-old to create a world where goodness prevails over evil, to escape her harsh reality.
The movie speaks to Ofelia’s innocence as a child growing up in fascist Spain.

Even when faced with an ultimatum she refuses to spill her innocent brother’s blood and remains pure and hence she can return to the Underworld. On one hand, Del Toro sets up the possibility of magic having effects on the real world because things become a lot more difficult for Ofelia without the support of magic. In a world where cruelty prevails, Ofelia’s innocence and magic come through for her on various incidences. On the other hand, the film retains the ambiguity of the nature of magic by counteracting it with the logic of the cold adult world. Del Toro invites us to Ofelia’s world as she struggles with the cruel situation she finds herself in. The scenes where magic and reality collide are all from a child’s perspective. Del Toro is trying to indicate that either she has the imaginative power to concoct such a magical realm or that, she as a child, is the only one who has the right to be a part of that world. The fact that Ofelia dies and that her last thoughts are of the Underworld are both beautiful and tragic. It’s beautiful because Del Toro wants us to believe in the possibility that Ofelia transcended from Earth and went onto the Underworld but tragic at the same time because no matter what the result, it had to come at the cost of an innocent child’s

death.