If one suggests that immersing in fairy tales is a good way to relax and escape from the reality, I’ll say Pan’s Labyrinth tells the complete opposite. The plots are too ruthless to be tale-like, yet too bizarre to be true. The director uses a dark, modern-day fairy tale to parallel with the cruelty of life.

​

The story took place in Spain, 1994. After the Civil War, armed rebels were still hiding in the mountains, fighting against the new Fascist regime. Military posts were established to exterminate the resistance. Young Ofelia traveled with her pregnant mother, Carmen, to live with Captain Vidal, Ofelia’s stepfather, because Vidal wanted his son to be born beside him. One night, Ofelia met a fairy who took her to a pit in the center of a maze. There she met Faun, telling her that she was the princess from the kingdom underworld. Faun also told Ofelia that her father was waiting for her to return to the underworld. In condition of going back to be the princess, Ofelia must prove her royalty and innocence by finishing three tough and dangerous tasks before full moon as Faun said, “we have to make sure that your essence is intact…” Meanwhile, she became friend of a servant, Mercedes, who was the sister of one of the rebels, going undercover in the military post and supporting the rebels. Along with Mercedes, Dr. Ferreiro, who believed that a doctor should save lives no matter which side they are on, was also helping the rebels. In the dark, harsh, and violent world, Ofelia tried her best to survive the tasks as well as maintained her kind heart. In this essay, I am going to analyze how the three tasks that Faun assigns Ofelia connect with elements of the reality in the film.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first task:

Once upon a time, when the forests were young, they were home to creatures, and were full of magic and wonder. A monstrous toad has settled in the roots of a colossal fig tree, drying its branches and twisting its trunk. Ofelia shall put the three magic stones into the monstrous toad’s mouth and retrieve the golden key from inside its belly; only then will the fig tree flourish again.

In my opinion, the fig tree symbolizes Ofelia’s mom, Carmen, and the giant toad symbolizes Ofelia’s brother in Carmen’s belly. At the beginning of the film, Ofelia said to Mercedes that “her brother makes her mom sick” through fantasy, Ofelia was able to blame her mother for getting married and getting pregnant again. To some extent, she wanted to go back to the time when she and her mom were happy together, even back to the time when her father was not dead. Ofelia thought that her brother was the reason to her mother’s sick, and she hated the fact that both her brother and the Captain Vidal, were taking her mother away from her.

The quest of retrieving the key itself has its own interpretation, and is linked to the first third of the main story which center on a store room key. As the opining of the film, the remaining rebels of the Civil War were still hiding in the forest, waiting for chances to overthrow the new Fascist regime. At some point Captain Vidal decided to lock down all the food and medicine supply in the whole area in the only store room, which was a seemingly efficient way to end the rebellion. Vidal immediately stashed everything up in his storage and, as Ofelia retrieved the golden key form the inside of the toad in the task, he took the storage key from Mercedes, who used to carry the key. However, what he didn’t know was that Mercedes had a spare key to the store room, making her the only hope for the rebels to survive.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second task:

Ofelia shall use the chalk to draw a door, go to the place where the door leads to, use the golden key to unlock one of the three safes, and bring back the dagger inside before the sand in the hourglass runs out. Ofelia will see a feast on the table in the place inside the wall, yet she is not allowed to eat anything; otherwise, a gruesome child eating monster will be awake and kill her.

The door drew by the magic chalk symbolizes Ofelia’s desire to run away from this world, which Vidal ruled with cruelty. The hourglass indicates Vidal’s manias with punctuality. In the room where the magic door led to, Ofelia saw a feast on the table; however, she was not allowed to eat anything. This part of the task indicates that there were many foods and supplies in the store room of the post, but people were not allowed to have access of them freely.

There is also an interesting comparison I observed between two scenes at the same night: the place inside the wall where Ofelia went and the dinner party given by Vidal. In the secret room inside the wall, Ofelia saw a feast on a long table and a monster sitting at the end of it in front of a fireplace. Creepily, at the dinner party in the real world, Vidal was also sitting and the end of the table in front of a fireplace. The same position indicates that Vidal was actually nothing but a monster.

The dagger itself represents the small kitchen knife which Mercedes carefully kept with herself all the time. Mercedes was on a survival struggle as she was secretly helping the rebels to stand up against Vidal. For example, she kept a spare key to the store room and smuggle food and medicine supply from time to time. Thus, she needed the knife to protect herself at some crucial moments. As in the film, the small knife was her salvation when she was captured by Vidal.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third task:

Ofelia shall bring her baby brother to the labyrinth at full-moon night, and Pan will shed his pure blood to re-open the gate of the underworld.

The story was coming near the end, the rebels took a stand against Vidal and he was on the verge of his defeat. In the chaos, Ofelia stole her baby brother from Vidal and ran to the labyrinth. Ofelia had to choose between her own life and her brother’s; it indicates that Vidal’s choice between Carmen and his son. In the end, Ofelia sacrificed her own life for her brother just like Carmen sacrificed hers. Ofelia showed her kindness and courage by saving her brother and disobeying Pan’s order. Ofelia spilled her own blood rather than that of an innocent, and by doing so, she passes the final test and becomes the princess of her father’s kingdom again.

In my opinion, there is a darker interpretation of this sacrifice. Since Faun was merely Ofelia’s imagination, arguing with Faun was basically she arguing with herself. In a way, Ofelia’s little brother was the reason for all her loss, suffering and humiliation. Also, she knew her stakes when she stole that baby from that murderous man. For a few moments, it is possible that Ofelia was considering a heartless revenge. Yet Ofelia’s innocence won over her vengeance, just like Dr. Ferreiro’s kind heart won over the regimes. However, sadly, they were both killed by Vidal in the end.

​

In the seemingly happy ending, Ofelia did fulfill her fantasy imaginations; however, in the real world, a gunshot took her life. To return to the fairytale-like kingdom, Ofelia had to sacrifice her life, the sarcasm parallels to the fact that people have to go through wars and deaths to live in a peaceful world. Immersing in the cruel reality, people are no longer innocent; just like what is said by Carmen, “You're getting older... soon you'll see that life isn't like your fairy tales. The world is a cruel place. And you'll learn that, even if it hurts.” Depressing as the reality is, I still believe in kindness and courage; we must have faith in life, just like Ofelia, Mercedes, and Dr. Ferreiro. Once we have faith in life, we’ll find that it is a lot pleasanter. When getting tired of the reality, we might as well think of the film and what it teaches us. Finally, curtain drops on this quote: And that Ofelia left behind small traces of her time on earth, visible only to those who know where to look.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​