There are several important themes found in Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth, but I am going to focus on the concepts of disobedience and rebellion. Throughout the film, I found that Ofelia and Mercedes were very similar characters.

This is an image of Mercedes comforting an upset Ofelia when she had to move into a separate room so her sick mother so she could get uninterrupted rest.

Ofelia disobeyed the faun and rebelled in her fantasy world several times. In an article published in Screen Edition written by Kim Edwards titled “Alice’s Little Sister: Exploring Pan’s Labyrinth” Edwards declares Ofelia’s “world seems to value energy and action and extols rebellion, disobedience and freedom of choice” (Edwards 2). The most memorable incidence of her rebellion was Ofelia’s interaction with the Pale Man. The faun gave Ofelia distinct orders not to eat or drink anything from the banquet, telling her “your life depends on it.” Ofelia succeeded in capturing the dagger she was sent to retrieve, but as she was leaving temptation took over causing her to consume two grapes. Although Ofelia escapes the Pale Man, the faun is furious that she disobeyed him and tells her she will never be allowed in her kingdom again.

This is an image of Ofelia observing the Pale Man before she gives into temptation and eats two grapes.

Mercedes rebellion, on the other hand, is illustrated in reality against the Captain. Although Mercedes works for the Captain and obeys his orders in some ways, she was really working against him by helping her brother and other guerrillas who were hiding in the woods. Mercedes double life took extreme courage but she thinks of herself as a coward for living with the Captain and doing his every day chores for him. The Captain is extremely sexist and does not think Mercedes, or any woman for that matter, is capable of undermining his authority. In the article “Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)” written by Professor Paul Julian Smith, Smith declares that the Captain’s “misogyny will prove his undoing: Mercedes, dismissed as ‘just a woman,’ is in league with the guerrillas and will conspire against her tyrannical master under his very nose” (Smith 6). Mercedes is successful in stealing from the Captain and providing aid to the guerrillas because he does not suspect that a woman would dare disobey him. Similarly, throughout the film “women and children are seen and not heard,” which somewhat helped Mercedes fly under the Captain’s radar screen for as long as she did (Edwards 3). Before she passes away, “Ofelia’s mother tells her daughter that life is not like the fairy stories with which she is obsessed” (Smith 9). However, the similarities between Ofelia and Mercedes and their journeys throughout the film suggest that fairy tales and reality have more in common than we think.

This image is Mercedes in her brother, Pedro. Pedro is comforting his sister after admitting she feels like she is a coward.

Del Torro did a great job of intertwining the fantasy world with reality. His transitions from one world to the other were smooth which made it believable that the two worlds could coexist. The characters from the labyrinth, although completely made up creatures, were believable in the way Del Toro designed them. The faun’s screechy voice suited him and the Pale Man’s palm-eyes added an extra dose of fear as he went after Ofelia. I thought the lullaby that Mercedes hums to Ofelia sounded somewhat eerie, possibly foreshadowing Ofelia’s fate.