Mali 1

Ashaka Mali

Prof. Cheatham

English 100

29 October 2015

In a Parallel Universe

Pan’s Labyrinth tells a story of a young girl Ofelia, caught amidst the cruelties of the

Spanish Civil War. The film begins with a close-up of Ofelia’s face with blood gushing up her

nose. As the blood gradually seeps up her nostrils, the camera closes in on her dilated pupil;

simultaneously the narrator orates, “Long ago in the Underground realm, where there are no lies

or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamt of the human world” (Pan’s). This opening statement

introduces the audience to Ofelia’s two conflicting worlds; the real world with the ongoing Civil

War, and her fantasy world. Bettelheim’s article “Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament,”

further elaborates on this illusionary realm through its portrayal of her escape from reality into a

faun’s labyrinth. Bettelheim asserts that children appreciate fairy tales because it helps them

acknowledge and confront their obstacles in life, as Ofelia does in Pan’s Labyrinth.

Bettelheim states that “many fairy stories begin with the death of a mother or father; in

these tales the death of the parent creates the most agonizing problems, as it… does in real life”

(204). Similarly, Ofelia can easily relate to these tales in that, her father actually dies. Her mother

Carmen, is a helpless woman pregnant with Vidal’s child. Vidal is a cruel, cold-blooded

stepfather, an antithesis of her biological father. Mercedes, Vidal’s housekeeper, plays the role of

a fairy godmother because she guides Ofelia throughout her stay at Vidal’s supposed lair. Ofelia

and Carmen find themselves amidst the violent Spanish Civil War led by Vidal. Parallel to this

sadistic world is Ofelia’s world of fantasy and myths. Vidal wreaks havoc through death and

destruction. This hostile setting requires an escape from the brutality that resides there. Ofelia

finds this escape and is completely immersed in Princess Moanna’s tragic fairy tale. Princess
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Moanna, the daughter of the King of the Underworld, dies in her quest to visit the human world.

The faun, a figment of Ofelia’s imagination, convinces Ofelia that she and Princess Moanna are

one.

Furthermore, Bettelheim says that “the child fits unconscious contents into conscious

fantasy, which then enable him to deal with that content” (203). The transformation of insects to

fairies creates a bridge between the worlds that reflects the freedom of Ofelia’s creativity in

comparison to the vulnerability she experiences in reality. Hence, Ofelia created these fairies

from her subconscious mind and fits them into her conscious daydream. Moreover, the faun, a

part of her subconscious mind, convinces her that she is Princess Moanna by showing her a mark

on her left shoulder, which is a part of her conscious fantasy. Additionally, the faun gives Ofelia

the Book of Crossroads, which shows Ofelia her future, and gives her tasks. Ofelia creates these

images from her dormant mind and connects them to the facts she is acquainted with.

Bettelheim claims that “When the unconscious is repressed and its content denied

entrance into awareness, then eventually the person’s conscious mind will be partially

overwhelmed by derivatives of these unconscious elements” (Bettelheim 203). Ofelia’s mother

and stepfather rebuked her from reading fairy tales, thus ceasing Ofelia’s immediate solace.

However, Ofelia mind was free to imagine and she therefore created a world of her own. In this

fantasy, she is Princess Moanna.To acquire her throne, she has to fulfill three tasks before the

full moon, as per the faun’s requirement. Every time she comes across an obstacle in reality, the

faun appears and presents Ofelia with a task. She receives her first task when she is forced to

attend a dinner party in a dress she does not want to wear. The task was to retrieve a gold key

from a giant toad’s belly, which she accomplishes. However, she ruined her pretty dress and

fancy shoes. In doing so, she was unable to attend the party which was what she wished for all

along. When the second obstacle came her way, she was assigned a second task. This challenge

required her to retrieve an ornate dagger from the lair of the Pale Man with a delicious feast laid
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before him. Despite being advised to keep away from the tempting food, Ofelia eats two grapes

from the large feast thereby awakening the Pale Man. Her failure to complete the second task

propels the faun to shun her. He says, “The moon will be full in three days. Your spirit shall

forever remain among the humans. You shall age like them, you shall die like them, and all

memory of you shall fade in time. And we'll vanish along with it. You will never see us again”

(Pan’s). As a result of this major setback in her fantasy world, her reality crumbles too. Her

mother’s health severely deteriorates, as she writhes and screams in agony while giving birth to

her son. While doing so, she dies a painful death. Furthermore, Ofelia is locked in her bedroom

when she tried to run away with Mercedes.

Bettelheim believes that a “child is subject to desperate feelings of loneliness and

isolation” (206). Locked away and powerless, Ofelia is shattered as she lost yet another parent,

her freedom to live. Fortunately, the faun visits her again and decides to give her one last chance.

He asks her to fetch her brother and bring him to the labyrinth. He said, “We need him” (Pan’s).

The audience may see a pattern here. The faun appears and presents Ofelia with a task every time

she is distressed. The faun can be a figment of Ofelia’s fantasy who helps her deal with her real-

life problems effectively. It is proved that the faun is Ofelia’s imagination when, in the labyrinth,

Vidal cannot see the faun conversing with Ofelia. Hence, throughout the movie, the audience is

shown the realities and cruelties of war with the child’s vision of fairies and happy endings.

Ofelia neglects the real world as she rebels against her mother’s wishes (and does not attend the

banquet), and overlooks Vidal’s regime (escaping with Mercedes).

Another argument in Bettelheim’s article is that “[t]here is a widespread refusal to let

children know that the source of much that goes wrong in life is due to our very own natures- the

propensity of all men for acting aggressively, asocially, selfishly, out of anger and anxiety.

Instead, we want our children to believe that, inherently, all men are good” (204). Carmen wants

her daughter to believe that Vidal is a good person even though, deep down she knows that he is
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not. Here, the viewers see an adult refusing to accept the truth. Carmen wants to believe that

Vidal is good because that is the only way she can reassure herself that they are safe under

Vidal’s administration. Hence, she needs Ofelia to believe that too. Carmen tells Ofelia, “The

captain has been so good to us... Please, Ofelia, call him father. It's just a word, Ofelia, just a

word” (Pan’s). This shows that Bettelheim’s article not only applies to children, but to adults as

well.

Finally, Bettelheim affirms that “fairy tales pose the dilemma of wishing to live

eternally” (206). Ofelia is the perfect example to support this point because though she wishes to

live, circumstances cause her eventual heroic death. She saves her brother from the faun’s

demand to sacrifice the “blood of an innocent” (Pan’s) but in turn gets shot by Vidal. As she lay

there dying, drops of Ofelia’s blood opened the portal to the Underworld. The next scene shows

Ofelia emerging as the princess in a golden throne room. She is welcomed by her mother and her

father. This shows that Ofelia’s imagination was so powerful that even as she was dying, she

lives eternally in her fantasy world with the parents she dearly loved.

One may say that Ofelia is finally home after dying in the mortal world. Logically

speaking, Princess Moanna’s fairy tale was simply an out, to validate her realistic state.

Mercedes was her constant support in the mortal world, but in contrast, the faun was her guide in

her fantasy world. For those who believed in Ofelia’s fantasy, “the Princess returned to her

father's kingdom… she reigned there with justice and a kind heart for many centuries… she was

loved by her people. And… she left behind small traces of her time on Earth, visible only to

those who know where to look” (Pan’s).

Works Cited

Bettelheim, Bruno. “Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament.” Dreams and Inward Journeys.

Eds. Marjorie Ford and Jon Ford. New York: Longman, 1998. 203-07. Print.

Pan’s Labyrinth. Dir. Guillermo del Toro. Perf. Ivana Basquero. New Line Home Entertainment,
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2006. DVD