Mythology Overload!: Ofelia's Three Tasks in Pan's Labyrinth

 

In my previous post about Pan's Labyrinth, Del Toro's 2006 Spanish film, I talked about the wide usage of ambiguity and also some of the evident mythological inspirations. As I discussed earlier, this movie is flooded with duality, either in the nature of characters, like the Faun, or in settings, like the labyrinth. In this blog I'll elaborate more on Ofelia's trials and her journey as the protagonist of the movie and her return to the underworld.

The Faun in Pan's Labyrinth assigns Ofelia three tasks to accomplish: retrieve the golden key from the giant toad, steal the pale man's dagger, and sacrifice an innocent in order to return to the underworld ruled by her true father. Under the impression that she is the princess Moana of the land of the immortal, she goes to great lengths to complete the quests and reclaim her royal identity.

The accomplishment of three tasks is a common theme among mythological heroes around the globe, where the hero, by successfully completing the given quests, enters or returns from the land of the dead. But why three tasks? Before I explain further on the tasks, let's take a look at the power of number three in fairy tales.

Number three in folklore 

One of the most repetitive numbers in fairy tales and mythology is the number three of all the numbers. It's very common in storytelling, always carrying significant patterns and meaning through the stories universally for all time.

As a matter of fact, number three can only be divided by itself, and its most common symbolization can be the unbreakable power or a significant bond or pattern, which makes whatever associated with this number recognizable and hard to forget. In storytelling, the perfect narrative structure is carried out by the number three: a beginning, middle, and ending. Also, heavy religious allegories and symbolisms can be interpreted with the same number depending on the context. 

Other than the structure, some stories feature triads in characterization. They can either be the main characters or side characters aiding the protagonist. Some famous examples in fairy tales are Goldilocks and her three bears, the three little pigs, etc. More triads can be seen in the story's plot itself, like the evil queen's three attempts to kill Snow White, the three wishes of the genie, etc. 

Earlier in Maiden, Mother, and Crone, I talked about the three powerful women in Brave. Although the movie, crafted by Disney, isn't completely modern. Because of the Celtic roots in the aesthetic of the movie, the significance of the number three doesn't merely stop in the characterization. Some examples in that animation consist of the three bears on Merida's necklace, her three encounters with the witch, her three brothers aiding her, and her three suitors from three different tribes. Furthermore, the three opposing forces at each timeline in this movie (three women against societal norms and Mordu's three brothers against him/chaos) create the main conflicts of the story. 

The older the story is, the bolder the use of numbers gets. Not only because of the influence but also because the oral tradition of passing down stories from one generation to another is simply bound to make patterns and depend on them for years and years to come. 

Orestes Pursued by the Furies

Let's dig deeper. In Greek mythology, triads have a special role depending on their power or stance. On the surface, everyone's already familiar with the big three Olympian gods of Greek mythology: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, ruling the sky, ocean, and underworld. This symbolizes the balance and harmony in the universe. The division between the entities made it possible to control and rule over their lands. The most iconic example of triads in Greek mythology is the Fates. the three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of life of each individual born to Greek society and controlling their destiny.

The Fates

Another trio is the Graces: the goddesses of beauty, joy, and festivity, Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. This trio represents splendor and delight in human experiences. The goddesses of retribution, the Furies, prefer cold-blooded revenge to joy. Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone live in the underworld and punish mortals for their sins and crimes against the natural order.

Other significant trios worth mentioning are the judges of the underworld, who, as the name suggests, decide the fate of mortal souls after they enter the underworld. Let's not forget about two other sister terios: the Gorgons and the Graeae. The Gorgons are the three terrifying sisters, the youngest being Medusa, who has the ability to turn anybody into stone by gazing upon them. And last but not least, the Graeae, one of the most amazing trios who share one eye and one tooth, who are guardians of information. Notice the representation of trios lays on the shared power, ability, and their unshakable bond among each other. 

To wrap it up, the use of different numbers in fairy tales and stories isn't limited to one number or pattern. In our story, Ofelia is given three trials. The use of the number three not only gives a shape and pattern to the story, but also it narrates a timeless story of innocence, sacrifice, and transcendence in a mythological frame. In Pan's Labyrinth, Ofelia has to complete these tasks to prove her royalty as Princess Moana, so let's get into it. 

Ofelia

Ofelia has a lot to say as an unreliable 11-year-old character in Pan's Labyrinth. She's living a double life: one real and the other surreal. Investigating for a way to save her own life, she manages to contact a faun after walking down a stone staircase in the middle of a labyrinth following a forest fairy. The Faun, despite promising her a better life as a princess in the underground kingdom, doesn't seem like a promising guide. Bear in mind, Del Toro keeps reminding the audience that the real world isn't the only one struggling with imbalance. One is burning in the flames of civil war and violence, and the other is bursting with impurities that await innocent souls like Ofelia or her newborn brother. 

Ofelia's first task: The Giant Toad

The first task given to Ofelia is set inside a dying fig tree, which was home to magical creatures hundreds of years ago. However, with a monstrous toad feeding on its roots, the fig tree can no longer thrive and is left with dry, twisted branches with age.

To retrieve the golden key from its belly, Ofelia has to kill the toad by putting three magical stones (number three again!) in his mouth given by the faun earlier that day. Ofelia really struggles to get inside the tree for one reason only: she had underestimated the trials. It was more difficult than what she'd expect it to be, as she admits to herself. The area inside the giant fig tree is covered with dirt, slime, and larger-than-life bugs that consistently attack Ofelia as she tries to get to the humongous toad.

Upon finding the toad, Ofelia comes up with a trick to make the gluttonous toad devour the magical stones without being harmed or eaten. And by beating the toad with great intellectuality, she takes the golden key and leaves the tree successfully.

Not long after Ofelia and her mother's arrival at the military compound, Vidal is having a party, so her mother made Ofelia a green dress to wear for the event. Wearing the dark green dress, she walks up to the fig tree but takes it off before entering the fig tree to take out the first task. The inspiration behind Ofelia's dress is said to be Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland animation, which I think is fabulous considering the fact that Ofelia and Alice are very much alike. Two little girls on adventures to fantastical places and interacting with magical realms and creatures to overcome the hardships of both worlds they live in that leads them to a life-changing journey. Both characters come to acknowledge their capabilities and strength, maturing into young adult women.

The dress also shows society's expectations of Ofelia as the captain's daughter, which she takes off to enter the tree. This provides another clue about her disobedience against fascist Spain and her urge to bring a drastic change to her life by proving herself as the princess. The division between the real world's and the underworld's ideologies not only lies in the storyline but also in Ofelia's decisions as the story unfolds. In reality, she takes off the dress to preserve her mother's hard work and avoid disappointing the people around her, as they warned her not to get it dirty. However, to prove her essence as the real princess of the underworld, Ofelia has to strip herself from the materiality of the real world and help the fig tree to thrive again, which symbolizes the wilderness without the harmful effect of human activity. On the other hand, the toad and the abnormally huge bugs feeding on the tree's roots symbolize man's destructive influence on nature as the war in the real world continues.

Ofelia's second task: The Pale Man's Dagger

After retrieving the golden key, Ofelia is tasked with stealing the sacred dagger from the most terrifying monster of the movie, the Pale Man. Instead of a rabbit hole to fall in, she has to open some kind of a portal to enter the Pale Man's lair. Opening the portal is only possible with a magical chalk given by the Faun. Any door traced by this chalk on any wall of her own room would open to the monster's den. The portal itself is only the tip of the iceberg in the second task. First of all, Ofelia has to start an hourglass before entering the lair and then choose the right cabinet out of three containing the sacred dagger. She is specifically warned to leave before the last grain of sand falls without eating or drinking anything from the monster's exquisite banquet. After entering the Pale Man's banquet hall, Ofelia observes her surroundings with great astonishment and approaches the Pale Man. To her surprise, the giant white nightmare is not "awake." His eyes are disembodied on his plate in front of him, and the banquet stays untouched. 

Other than the chalk, the Faun had also gifted three fairies to guide Ofelia through the second task. Upon finding the three cabinets, all the fairies guide her to unlock the one in the middle, but Ofelia opens the left cabinet with pure intuition. As a matter of luck, she succeeds in opening the right cabinet and finding the sacred dagger with confidence. Ofelia isn't quite aware of the price of her disobedience and is tempted to try the lavish-looking grapes lying on the banquet. Ignoring the fairy's warnings, she pops two in her mouth, and by doing so she awakens the Pale Man. To her utmost horror, the monster starts first to walk with a limp and then run towards her at a rapid pace. Ofelia finally realizes what she has done after watching two fairies getting eaten alive by the Pale Man and barely escapes with the sacred dagger and one surviving fairy. 

Ofelia's disobedience in eating the grapes can be compared to the myth of Persephone, who ate pomegranate seeds after being kidnapped that bound her fate to the underworld. and it's reasonable. Both attempts were done for different reasons, but the outcome of both is realizing the consequences of your actions. Ofelia had a mission to prove herself as Princess Moana of the underworld and failed to control her desire and temptation given the chance to prove the Faun wrong. 

Now let's elaborate on the one and only Pale Man. Some have compared this grotesque monster with the Cyclops in the Odyssey, Polyphemus. the giant one-eyed monster who imprisoned Odysseus and his crew in his cave and increasingly fed on his crew, devouring them whole. 

Saturn Devouring His Son

Another fair comparison, which I think fits the Pale Man's vile nature, is Cronos, the King of the Titans in Greek mythology. His mother, Gaia, warns him of a prophecy after he refuses to free Gaia's other children from Tartarus. Like father, like son, Cronos was doomed to be overthrown by one of his children. Following Gaia's prophecy, he devoured his children whole soon after they were born. until Rhea saved Zeus, her last newborn, by feeding a rock to Cronos. 

Child-eating monsters are common beings in fairy tales, but Del Toro has a fascination with combining both mythological and folkloric pieces together to make his own monster. The Pale Man is both deeply disturbing and symbolic at the same time. The pile of small shoes in the corner of the hall of his previous child victims and his thirst for the blood of the innocent bring back the fear of child-preying monsters in tales of monstrous ogres and vampires. Furthermore, the Pale Man is a highly symbolic character, symbolizing the horrors of consumption and uncontrolled impulses. Ofelia's blind faith in herself did the trick for the most part but didn't pay off in the end. Eventually, Ofelia learns to understand the consequences of her choices driven by desire. This also reflects the moral of many fairy tales around the world.

Ofelia's third task: An Innocent's Blood 

the final task is what happens to be a moral dilemma for Ofelia who has to choose what right. and by right I mean authentically right. by the end of the movie the Faun asks Ofelia to bring her new born brother to the labyrinth as the final task. after a series of events Ofelia succeeds in showing up at the labyrinth with her brother with Vidal following them closely behind . the Faun asks the desperate Ofelia to shed an innocent's blood to open a portal to the underworld but she refuses to do so. by giving up on her throne Vidal finally catches up to them and shoots Ofelia dead. her blood opens the gates to the underworld and we're shown a scene where Ofelia's finally reunited with her true family overcoming her final task, self-sacrifice. 

Ofelia's journey 

It's safe to say that Ofelia lived through the tasks and, most importantly, transcended to a more mature woman by the end of the movie. Her ability to make a moral choice by saving her newborn brother without giving up on her beliefs and obsession with fairy tales and preserving her innocence is yet another clue to an independent young adult woman who knows exactly what she wants from her life. 

reality or a dream? 

Myth and storytelling were created by humans to explain concepts like death, war, cruelty, fate, birth and rebirth, and so on. To explain further, there is a thin line between reality and fantasy, especially in a child's mind. Clearly, Ofelia had already gone through a lot as an 11-year-old kid before moving into the concentration camp. She lost her father to the civil war and had to leave her city with her mother and her stressful pregnancy. Captain Vidal and his violent acts towards Ofelia, her mother, and the people of the camp did nothing but add more fuel to the fire. Her mother's deteriorating illness following the pregnancy is her last straw. In my opinion, one of the most accurate theories concerning this movie is that, to cope with all these mental conflicts, Ofelia creates this fairy tale as an escape from the real world. So the fantastical elements in the movie could merely be a creation of Ofelia's imagination.