Zach Miller
Wilson
Brit Lit
April 2, 2013
Pan’s Labyrinth: Essay
I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding
Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the
title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized
in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating
and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the
possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the
paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.
xZach Miller
Cites:
Miller, Zach C. "Mise En Scene." Web log post. Zach
Miller, n.d. Web. <http://zachmillerbritlit.blogspot.com/>.
Pan's Labyrinth. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Prod. Guillermo Del
Toro, Bertha Navarro, Alfonso Cuarón, Frida Torresblanco, and Álvaro Augustín.
By Guillermo Del Toro. Perf. Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, and Ivana Baquero.
Picturehouse, 2006.
"Quotes About Mistakes." (270 Quotes). N.p., n.d.
Web. 04 Apr. 2013. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/mistakes>.
Wilson, ed. Pan's Labyrinth. 22 Mar. 2013. Tracking sheet.
Zach Miller
Wilson
Brit Lit
April 2, 2013
Pan’s Labyrinth: Essay
Growing up
is always a different story for every person. Whether you experience your
adolescence in a happy or scary way you still learn about maturing and becoming
an adult. The “Pale Male” scene is a pivotal moment for Ofelia’s journey
because it represents the disobedience of Ophelia, which is the start of her
becoming mature and a strong independent. Ophelia almost risk everything that
she wants, just so she can eat a couple of grapes. She gives into the
temptation of eating the two grapes off the table of the Pale male, even though
she was told by her mentor, the faun. Though disobedience isn’t the exact start
to adolescence, or the beginning of adult hood, Ophelia still learns from this
lesson of disobedience. The director finds great ways to “tell the story” of
the scene, and also to send messages without the characters being verbal. He is
successful of this by using objects, angles, and sounds during the scene.
After Ophelia gets the knife from the stoned
wall, she walks up to the pale man and is scared. This is symbolizing the fact
that Ophelia knows that the man is very bad and if she eats the grapes
something bad is going to happen to her. There is also no music during the time
she is walking towards the pale man. But after she starts walking across the
table, Ophelia begins to walk next to the table and music begins to play and
the camera begins to zoom up on her. This could be a symbol of Ophelia’s
temptations rising as she gets closer to the grapes. Once she figures out what
she wants, the camera moves away from her and goes to the full plate of grapes
that just look so delicious. This is showing us that Ophelia really wants the
grapes. She then turns to her left and the focus goes on the pale man. This is
effective because it kind of gives us a hint that something is going to happen
with the pale man when she eats the grapes. You can also predict that something
bad is going to happen when the fairies are trying to get her to stop. Ophelia doesn’t
pay attention to the fairies though and continues to eat a grape, she even
takes another one to eat too. This is significant for her because once she eats
the grapes the pale male comes alive and eats two of the faun’s fairies. When Ophelia
comes to Pan’s Labyrinth she tells the faun what had happen to his fairies and
this makes the faun very angry. The faun tells Ophelia that she had failed her
tasks by eating the grapes and that she should have listened to him. This is a
significant part in the Ophelia’s story because this helps her realize that she
wants to be the princess and out of the real world more than anything. It helps
Ophelia understanding the ultimate goal for herself and that she accepts the
fact that she needs to accept her role as the princess and should do the right
thing.
“Freedom is
not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” This is
a great quote about learning lessons said by Mahatma Ghandi. The quote can mean
that if an individual didn’t have the freedom to make a mistake, then he/she
wouldn’t have the freedom to live. The reason why they wouldn’t have the
freedom to live is because they haven’t learned anything by making these
mistakes. I think this quote fits perfectly for Ophelia because she had that
temptation to do something bad, even though she knew she wasn’t supposed to eat
the grapes. A similar situation of this could be for any kid who is growing up
with problems, like Ophelia not wanting to live with her step-father and
wanting to be a princess. A problem for a kid could be being in an abusive relationship
with either a friend or relative and they are too scared to tell anyone. But
once someone finds out, and he or she is forced to tell then they realize that
they should have done something from the beginning because of the results of
the abuse stopping. This is all a part of growing up. So in comparison, Ophelia
represents the abusive child who is looking for a way out of the situation.
Ophelia eating the grapes compares to somebody finding out about the abusive
relationship. This leads to the fairies dying and making the faun mad, which
then leads to Ophelia learning her lesson because when she is told that she wasn’t
going to be a princess anymore, she realizes that she wanted it more than
anything and that the temptations of eating the grapes weren’t worth it. This
part compares to the abusive relationship because if you are an abused child,
you are too scared to tell people because you are scared about what is going to
happen after you tell, but once forced to tell what his friends or relatives to
do him because somebody found out and he or she was confronted they realize that
they should have told somebody from the beginning. In the end, Ophelia and the
abused kid learned a lesson of growing up.
The pale man
scene is important for Ophelia because it shows that she is growing up. By
being disobedient, she gets punished by the faun and this helps her realize the
big picture and what she really wants. The director does a great job during the
scene to show us the emotions of what is going on through the scene. Basically
growing up is not all about the happy stuff, but it is good for bad things to
happen to you because you learn from that and you can move further into your adolescence
and eventually take your lessons throughout your adult hood.
