Ofelia’s inner self in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ in retrospective of the Spanish Civil War Category: Film Analysis Essay

Through Ofelias interactions with the mythical world and her journey to complete the tests that will prove her royal lineage, the film shows that legends, such as the legend of La Cava, have always played a key role in Spanish society as a way to maintain a sense of hope and to survive the realities of their world. In Pans Labyrinth, Ofelia is clearly traumatized by the violence and political instability of the Francoist era which is clearly demonstrated when she tells her unborn baby brother that things arent good out here and, therefore, causes the legend she was reading at the beginning of the movie to become manifested in her reality since she begins to play the role of the lost princess and goes on a quest to complete the tests proving her true identity. All throughout the movie, Ofelia constantly avoids calling Vidal father and states that her real father was a tailor whenever someone mentioned the word father, showing that perhaps he had possibly been killed either during the Spanish Civil War or the Franco regime. Thus, by not ignoring what had happened, just like the rest of Spanish society, she could not cope with the trauma of the death of her father and the effects of the Francoist regime on her own and, therefore, turned to legends as a way to remove herself from her reality. However, after moving to Vidals home, she is within close proximity to the symbol of her distress (her stepfather himself) and in the middle of the region where there continues to be a fight for power between the Republicans (the rebels) and the Nationalists (Francos army). Therefore, the trauma she was experiencing was heightened, causing the legend of the labyrinth to become a part of her reality as soon as she arrives at their new home. She begins to see mythical creatures, such as the faun, and talks to them, despite others not being able to see them, showing that everything she was experiencing was actually a psychological outlet for her trauma and her way of attempting to understand what was occurring around her. Similarly, the legend of La Cava played the same role for society during the 8th century. In 711 A.D., the Moors invaded the Iberian peninsula and defeated the Visigothic kingdom, thereby creating a sense of disillusionment and shock within society which resulted in them creating the legend of La Cava as a way to understand the fall of the Visigoths to the Moors, just like Ofelia undergoes the journey described in the legend of the labyrinth to cope with the constant fear that was typical of the Franco era. In the legend of La Cava, the fall of the Visigothic kingdom is blamed on the daughter of Count Julian, known as La Cava, since the last king of the Visigoths, Rodrigo, was tempted by her beauty and raped her. In revenge, Count Julian invited the Moors to invade Iberia, resulting in the end of the