Archetypes In Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth
ENG4UI-05
Mr. Amoroso
September 29
2014
Billy McPherson

Pan’s Labyrinth
An original model or type after which other similar things are patterned; a prototype is how the dictionary defines an archetype. In the movie Pan’s Labyrinth it characterizes strong elements of both romance and irony. When analyzing the plot, characters, symbols, and scenes of the movie, it shows these element throughout the whole duration. Ofelia, our archetypal hero shows how the movie has both a romance and ironic plot. First off, the setting is in Spain 1944, where a civil war had just ended and fascism had conquered. Now this meant that Spain wasn’t in the best shape and definitely was not an innocent country. It’s quite ironic that amidst
Ofelia must retrieve a dagger from the Pale man, but it is imperative that she does not eat anything, her life depends on it. She draws a door with chalk and enters his chamber. But she only has a limited time to complete this task before the door closes. As she enters Ofelia sees stacks of shoes and pictures of the Pale Man eating children. This is another representation of Cronus. The Pale Man is a brutal representation of the oppressive figures of Ofelia’s world, mainly Captain Vidal, Spanish Fascism and the Catholic Church. To explain this further the scene of Vidal having dinner with his guests, including a Catholic priest, is shown at the same time, in which nobody dares to question the Captain’s cruel motives. As Ofelia goes over to the 3 doors in the wall, the fairies are pointing to the middle one which is the flashiest one. Instead she goes against them and opens the old ratty door. This symbolizes the flashiness of our world and that what is most important to us might not be in the prettiest door. Ofelia manages to retrieve the dagger, but on her way out she cannot resist the temptation of eating a big juicy grape. This symbolizes the wealth accumulated by the oppressive figures in the movie. This awakes the Pale Man who instantly places his eyeballs in his hands and starts chasing
This is a low point in the movie. She is alone and scared. She must now face the real world and experience war torment and sadness. She also had to deal with the death of her mother while giving birth. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get worse, the faun reappeared and gave Ofelia another chance. She was told to take her new baby brother into the Labyrinth at night, which she did and to complete her initiation and open the portal to the underworld she must spare a few drops of innocent blood. But she refuses. Then Vidal comes in and takes the baby back and shoots Ofelia. This causes drops of her own blood to fall into the Labyrinth and open the portal completing her final task