The Hero's Journey and Archetypal Patterns in Pan's Labyrinth
The story in the “Pan’s Labyrinth” film was set in the countryside of a post-Civil war Spain around 1944 during the Francoist period. It was the Spanish director, Guillermo Del Toro who later published the “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2016. The original identity of the film was titled El laberinto Del fauno. A heroic and imaginative young girl, Ofelia emerges from the movie doing everything possible to set herself free from the limitations she has experienced throughout her childhood life. The Spanish fascism the girl has lived through has been cruel all along and fought to offset her. Guillermo Del Toro is really about the harsh reality in the movie and the created fantasy that is accorded the movie. Multiple archetypal symbols are used in the film which Northrop Frye would argue that these symbols play an essential role in ensuring the meaning of the literary experiences. As Frye would argue it out, that in situations where the archetypal elements of imagery used in the artistic work one used to link to another work are not recognized, there is the likelihood of missing out the literature precise meaning form. The archetypal elements appear alongside the immense profundity of an intricate web of the occult. Thus, to profoundly understand this movie, Frye’s selected plot patterns with the clear intentions of showing the functioning of the archetypal elements within the film. Additionally, these elements are extracted to the development of the theme and the plot.
The theme and plot development of the movie will be examined regarding the archetypal symbols among them; time, the labyrinth, the three magic stones, symbolism of night in the film, and the clock, and others. The identity of the anima, animus, shadow, as well as the persona within the artistic work of Guillermo Del Toro will be examined and explained. The specific themes the paper discusses include; the war, gender roles, reality and fantasy, and children. It is natural and sounds normal for human beings to pursue things they find the fulfillment of their own lives. They are often greatly inspired find what is perceived to be out of their grasp. Right from the mythical and even religion-based accounts; archetype has remained the central component in the literature. This is the exact application in the Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth film. In the movie, what the character, Ofelia seeks is not something unique but somewhat normal. Ofelia in the film is doing everything possible to set herself free from the limitations she has experienced throughout her childhood life (Hubner, 2).
During the era of the civil war in Spain, people are dying; the republican rebels are being killed as the melancholy fable sets in amidst the chaos. Indeed the happening of the turmoil in Spain and the desire for Ofelia to seek freedom portrays the theme of war. Ofelia makes through her attempts to fulfill what her liberty from the oppressive surrounding. She decides to end a different world, probably with the endless possibilities. In this new world, Ofelia meets fauns and fairies as well as princess and kings (Carrasco, 32). It is the fascism of Franco’s regime that has become more compelling for this young girl have the wishes of escaping. However, as she moves, her attempts are met with a new backdrop, this new world is more demanding if not the same as the one she has already been in (Kotecki, 232). Upon reaching in the new land, Ofelia meets new people who change her life and the tune of her search for freedom from the oppression (Hubner, 3). Some of these people she meets who play an important role in her life are Vidal, Marcedes and the faun. This backdrop appears impressive and more compelling to the extent that it wants to question her sanity in the situation of what she has heard or seen in her everyday life.
Again, Ofelia is under the hard task that complete the three conditions that would secure her immortality and to allow her return to her kingdom. Though this does not kill her morale instead makes her feel more determined for her freedom as before. Guillermo del Toro presents a determined and a relentless young girl, Ofelia who has been inspired by the urge to fulfill her desires (Snider, para 2). She has her fate very clear and strongly believes in what she wants to achieve. As Frye would put it in his formula of the prototypical quest that it incorporates the self-desiring search to deliver one from the anxieties a person has about the reality (Frye, 96). Ofelia’s quest is met with struggles for her life through the three tasks to carry out as assigned by the faun. At the same time, the worsening situation of her mother’s health gets her worried, but she completes her first task. She had to retrieve keys from the giant toad’s belly. However, she secures her mother relief after presenting her with a mandrake root given to her by the faun (Guillermo del Toro, min 40). Again, Guillermo del Toro presents Ofelia as a symbol of hope for her ailing mother. All struggles she undertakes following the orders from faun gets her mother to acquire herbs that help her ease her illness. The Faun is partly human and partly a goat and has more powers over nature as Frye puts it (Frye, 95).
The accomplishment of her second task where she retrieves a dagger from the lair of the Pale Man against portrays Ofelia as a courageous and daring heroine with a lot of determination to secure her freedom. Her disobedience hinders the possibilities to secure her freedom to orders instructing her not to eat anything. The happenings around the Ofelia and the tasks to be carried which facilitates the cure to her mother and finding her kingdom presents the roles of gender. This fairy tale by Guillermo del Toro is made more meaningful through the archetypal characters presented in the movie that call specific experiences within us (Gorber, para 5). Ofelia is a determined young girl who is perceived as a heroine in the film. Living under restraint and oppressive regime when fascism seemed the order of the day, Ofelia gathers the courage to take up new challenges in her life. The fact that the world Ofelia was walking into had a lot of unforeseen possibilities which the director of the film portrayed as the world with fairies and faun.
The girl pursues the three tasks given to her by the Faun confidently something that again indicates that Ofelia was more determined to seek her freedom at all cost. Also, Ofelia is portrayed as a brave girl who dares the hardship of life and the dangers that come with it to make her being different. The bravery act of carrying out the tasks that involve the giant toad and Pale man are actual examples of how brave she was (Orme, 221). She as well faces some of the cruel people like Vidal who are determined to hunt down rebels and shoot them. Marcedes is another character presented in the movie as having earth mother traits of being secretive. Most of her activities are not known to others and does not let her issues out to others easily. When Ofelia meets her the first time, she Marcedes was nice to her, and she was supporting rebels including her brother Pedro though Ofelia did not know about this. Though Vidal comes to learn about Marcedes being a spy, this was after sometimes (Guillermo del Toro, min 57). Mercedes can also be portrayed as an entrusted person since Ofelia met her when she was the housekeeper for Vidal. The two seem to work closely and keeps the actions of Ofelia away from anybody else. Carmen is a mother to Ofelia; she features in the movie with the deteriorated health condition. She is associated with the images of fertility where she is the mother to Ofelia, and her death comes when she was giving birth to a son. Vidal also plays an essential role in the movie as a dictator and a cruel person who does not value human life. His characters can be related to those of Davey's stepfather in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (Dickens, min 45). He is assigned to hunt doe the rebels from Republican. Despite working for him as the housekeeper, Marcedes seems to be keeping secrets out of him showing that he is not approachable.
At one time, he shoots Ofelia after discovering that she was supporting the rebels and wanted to secure her freedom. The movie “Pan’s Labyrinth” is rich regarding the use of archetypal symbols function in the plot pattern when developing the plot and the theme. In the film, the Faun claims that the giant frog is sucking the life from the ancient sacred fig tree. A fig tree which from its design looks to some extent like a uterus symbolizes life and enlightenment. This is evident when Ofelia gets inside, and she discovers that it is soft and moist, refreshing back to the idea of the womb, and the giving of life (Spector, 83). On the other hand, the colossal frog symbolizes rebirth renewal as well as transition. The link between the tree and Ofelia’s mother is unconcealed and intentional. The uterus-like shape of the tree is a symbolic marker for sexual union between Vidal and Ofelia’s mother. Guillermo del Toro opted for the frog alongside the fig tree to put more emphasis on the idea of giving of life. Nevertheless, the frog and fig tree also symbolizes the act of the Spanish authorities, sucking the life out of its people during the time of oppression (Wylie, 443). The labyrinth expresses the different world that poor people live which is different from the life that their leaders live. The two groups live entirely different lives, and the leaders only visit the ordinary people to oppress them or when they need the favor from them.
The clock indicates the different perception of the time by the two groups of different classes. Those in leadership plan their issues based on time and clock acts as a reminder to them to work on their plans. The three magic stones is a sign of hope for the oppressed people that one day the things will happen differently and they would not go through the same oppression. Ofelia had to carry out three tasks before the full moon to indicate the commitment, and the sacrifice people have to go through for them to realize total freedom. The use of color in the move was to depict the emotion (Boyatzis, Chris J. , and Reenu Varghese, 78). The green color used indicates that even though people go through oppression, they will not perish, there is more life for them to live. The while gives hope of the bright future for the people who are undergoing oppression while the red color of Ofelia dress at the end shows the power people have to get what they want. The night indicates the hard times that the people go through oppression in the hands of their leaders while the moon acts a source direction out of abuse. The keys represent what people need to get their way out of oppression while the knife is the people need to utilize to gain their freedom.
