Summary

• The deeper meaning of Pan's Labyrinth lies in its parallel experiences of history and fantasy.
• Ofelia's quests in Pan's Labyrinth symbolize choices and disobedience against oppressive authority figures.
• The real terror in Pan's Labyrinth is the human villains, reflecting the importance of standing against fascism.

Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth is a fantasy, but the dark fairytale has a deeper meaning. Pan's Labyrinth is both a period piece rooted in historical events and a fantasy exploring childlike fears and wonders, but the true meaning of the film lies in its ability to reflect these two aspects as parallel experiences. Pan's Labyrinth is about Ofelia, a young girl who is desperate to escape her situation. The story in the Guillermo del Toro horror movie is set in Spain after the Civil War; Ofelia's widowed mother has remarried a fascist, Captain Vidal.

Vidal's intrusion into Ofelia's home life has threatened her sense of security. She turns inward — and embarks on an epic, and increasingly fantastic, journey of escape. Pan's Labyrinth has been a frequent subject of critical analysis, with many seeing the film as an allegory for the aftereffects and trauma of war. Del Toro has expressed that Pan's Labyrinth's meaning is a simple story that embodies the fairytales that inspired the work. The lack of explanation about the magical happenings that Ofelia experiences in Pan's Labyrinth is both unsettling and poetic, allowing the story to flow within its own world.

Pan's Labyrinth is available to rent on Apple TV, YouTube, Amazon, Vudu, and Google Play

Pan's Labyrinth's Meaning Explained — What Del Toro's Movie Is Really About

The Fairytale Elements Are Ofelia's Way Of Making Sense Of The World

Explaining Pan's Labyrinth's meaning involves looking at the symbolism driving the story. The characters are archetypes corresponding to their roles within folktale traditions, and they help to develop the main themes throughout the story. The protagonist, Ofelia, and the heroes and villains are defined in relation to their fairytale counterparts. For instance, del Toro points out that the rebels are like the woodsmen rescuing Little Red Riding Hood from the Big Bad fascist Wolf.

Similarly, the fantastical elements that Ofelia witnesses can be seen as her way of making sense of the world around her, the same way that fairytales are used to explain complex concepts in a more easily digestible manner. The Pale Man monster in Pan's Labyrinth, for example, symbolizes predatory authority figures who victimize those who are vulnerable — fitting in with the movie's allegory about fascism, and specifically making a thinly veiled criticism of the Catholic church.

Pan's Labyrinth Is About Choice And Disobedience

Ofelia Often Makes Unsafe But Noble Decisions

Del Toro has stated that the themes of Pan Labyrinth can be traced throughout the narrative due to the symbolic repetition, a common trait of fairytales. The faun in Pan's Labyrinth gives Ofelia three tasks to complete to help her return to her place as queen of the underworld, but she often disobeys instructions and makes choices based on her own conscience. Her decisions are not always the safest, as in the case of eating the Pale Man's food, but her morality ultimately allows her the noblest and most heroic of endings.

Instead of spilling her baby brother's blood as requested by the faun creature in Pan's Labyrinth, Ofelia spilled her own to open the portal to the underworld. The rebels resist autocratic rule through disobedience, which is reminiscent of Ofelia's tendency to follow her own choices instead of blindly following orders. The housemaid Mercedes parallels Ofelia in her subversive behavior, undergoing her own trials against the monstrous Captain Vidal. Thus, the two intertwining narratives repeat the same patterns to prove that trusting personal feelings over authority leads to a purer sense of morality.

Del Toro talks about how the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim theorized that, throughout history, fairytales have been used to manifest enigmatic aspects of the world. At first, these stories were used to explain natural phenomena, but as science developed, they represented more psychological aspects related to human behavior. Pan's Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro's best movie — continues this rich tradition in Del Toro's own way, employing specific iconography to bring fairytale elements to the real world and using monsters to express a tapestry of human morality.

Why Pan's Labyrinth's Meaning Has Never Been More Important

The Scariest Characters In Pan's Labyrinth Are The Human Beings

Pan's Labyrinth's message still stands out today. For all of the chilling creatures in the Labyrinth itself, by far the most frightening characters in Pan's Labyrinth are the human beings, in particular Captain Vidal and the fascists. Ofelia survives her trials in the Labyrinth but is still killed for speaking out and defying fascist authority in the real world. Yet, for her bravery and for taking a stand, Ofelia is rewarded in the afterlife, while the adults who resisted authority in secret without taking action are also killed but without reward.

This simple message of morality in one of Guillermo del Toro's best movies clearly illustrates the imperative to take a stand against fascism in all its forms – a statement that is all the more important in the 21st century, in which fascist sentiments continue to hold sway but are often disguised or ignored. Because of this, Pan's Labyrinth's story, while released over a decade ago and set in a different historical period, is still incredibly relevant and enduring.