Final Assessment Prompts for Pan's Labyrinth
CHOOSE ONE PROMPT FOR YOUR PROJECT (You can also create your own... just check it with Dr. Carolyn before you get started.)
· Compare Ofelia to Little Red in at least two variants (look back through the Folk & Fairy Tales book to remind yourself about the different versions we read). How does the Little Red story stand up to the contemporary retelling in Pan's Labyrinth? What messages do both these texts have for us as people who live in the contemporary world?
· If this is a film written within the tradition of Catholicism and aimed at a Catholic audience, what does it say about martyrdom? When Carmen is being buried, the priest utters, “God lies in mystery… through pain, we can find meaning.” How does this message translate for a contemporary audience?
· In this film, the weakest in society are often those who are abused or killed: the mandrake baby, the rebel who stutters, the gentle and graceful fairies, Ofelia, Carmen, etc. What message does this film send about sacrifice and loss, power and control, dominance and submission?
· What is real and what is imaginary in the film? Analyze why Ofelia engages in fantasy. What purpose does it serve for her? For us all?
· How does the backdrop of war set the tone for the film? Why did Guillermo del Torro choose to set this adult fairy tale in a time of national conflict, which involves blood, injury, torture, and death?
· The faun is as old as the trees. The pale man resembles the walking dead. What is the significance of these and other Other World creatures in the film (i.e. mandrake baby, the frog that lives within the tree, fairies, etc.)? What do they tell us about the potential for seeing horror and/or truths in the world in which we live?
· Mercedes and the doctor risk their lives multiple times to help the rebels and the resistance. Why do they do this? What is Guillermo del Torro telling us about the role of good versus evil? How do fairy tales depict weak characters in relationship to the strong? How does standing up against inequality, unfairness, and injustice create a better world for all of us? How do ethics mold us as people?
· The Captain focuses incessantly on his pocket watch. What does it symbolize for him? What does it tell us about his inner life versus his public sphere self?
* How does the film narrate family relationships? Compare three different depictions of family in the film. What is the implication of offering such different views of the family in society?
* Is it a satisfying ending that Ofelia can only find happiness in her family by sacrificing her own life? What does the film say about the oppressed and the oppressor? Interrogate these questions and messages through a postmodern lens.
* Use Pan's Labyrinth as a foundation for a larger discussion of archetypes in fairy tales.
* Deconstruct magical realism versus the harsh reality of actual human life as depicted in the film, Pan's Labyrinth.
· The film has many layers of messages. Symbolism helps to achieve an effect in which plot and theme merge together, intertwine, and create deeper meanings. Trace symbols and their significance in multiple ways across the film, especially as they apply to our contemporary lives.
* Examine Ofelia/ Moanna’s tasks and their role in the transformation of her character. Carmen says, “Life isn’t like your fairy tales.. Magic does not exist.” In what ways do Moanna and Ofelia’s stories contradict or support this statement. The tasks are:
o Retrieving the key from the stomach of the frog.
o Defeating/escaping the eyeless demon at the underground banquet and getting the silver dagger. (In discussing the demon, you might want to ask why his eyes are in the palms of his hands. What does this suggest about his vision or lack thereof?)
o Stealing and saving her baby brother.
· Research Bruno Bettleheim’s The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, especially the section on “Life Divined from the Inside.” Analyze Pan's Labyrinth through Bettleheim’s theories.
* At the conclusion of the film, after death, Ofelia’s soul is resurrected as Moanna, the Princess of the Underworld. At this point, her father, the King of the Underworld, says to her, “You have spilled your own blood rather than the blood of an innocent. That was the last and most important task.” Compare/contrast the lesson she learns from the performance of this task to the lessons learned by other classic heroes. Some suggestions are Oedipus, Odysseus, Monkey, and Gilgamesh from the performance of their final tasks.
* Discuss the roles of females in Pan’s Labyrinth. To what degree are some females the most complex and interesting characters? Why? What does this tell us about the values of the males in these male-dominated worlds? NOTE: Ofelia is not the only important female character. Her mother is also important, as is Mercedes, the Captain’s female housekeeper who’s helping the rebels, and other minor characters.
* Film has the capacity to inspire a variety of emotions in the viewer. Explain specific plot points in Pan's Labyrinth that inspire an array of viewer emotions, especially those that draw upon adult memories of childhood angst and development toward adulthood?
* In what ways are the following analogous in Pan's Labyrinth: luck: fate : : magical : reality?
* How are the magical drawings in the Book of Crossroads answers to Ophelia's dilemmas? How do the drawings serve as mechanisms for her to retain her childhood innocence?
* Track and explain the significance of five or more allusions in the film, Pan's Labyrinth.
* Zoom in on particular cinematographic techniques that del Torro incorporates in the film. What is the effect of each of these? how do these techniques serve dually to create literal and figurative meanings?
* Do an analysis of the "reading" of Pan's Labyrinth as a foreign film for non-Spanish speakers. How do subtitles affect the viewing experience, specifically, of Pan's Labyrinth?