Pan's Labyrinth

In the film Pan’s Labyrinth, the characters must deal with struggles and hardships throughout the story. It is a classic story of good versus evil. For Ofelia, she must not only deal with the tyrant of her stepfather, Captain Vidal, but also with the strange and dark fantasy world that she is experiencing. She must complete three tasks in order to become the princess of this alternate world. In this story, the characters do behave in believable ways. In one setting of the story, Captain Vidal is fighting the resistance fighters and doing whatever he can to win. This is expected from a captain of the Spanish army. Ofelia and her mother Carmen are trying to deal with everything that is going on around them in believable ways as well. Carmen marries a man she does not in order to gain support. This might not be righteous but it is a believable action. Even in the magical world Ofelia experiences, the creatures still behave in believable ways. The faun gets angry at Ofelia when she disobeys him just like a regular person would.

At the end of this text, the world is definitely more orderly than it had been. Captain Vidal is shot and killed by the rebels, ending the conflict that had occurred and stopping the fighting to make that scenario more orderly. The magical kingdom is finally in order when Ofelia sacrifices herself and returns to be the princess of her kingdom.

This film may make some political statements as far as the Spanish Civil war is concerned. This text definitely displays the nation’s army as an evil force and the rebel fighters as just and setting things right. The text clearly depicts the army as evil and the rebel fighters as good.

This text reminded me of traditional fairy tales as well as tales with other worlds. The reinforcement of the theme of three and mythical creatures reminded me of fairy tales such as the three little pigs and Cinderella how she had three mice friends and three evil people in her life. The story also reminds me of adventures in magical lands such as Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. I enjoyed this movie because it had a familiar fairy tale theme but had a twist that made it interesting. The twist was that it was dark and chilling and the characters and setting reflected this. It reminded me a little bit of The Labyrinth with David Bowie.

One gap question that comes to mind is if the imaginary world and scenario was all in Ofelia’s imagination or if it was real. There is no other person to verify the latter claim because only Ofelia could see the magical creatures. The fact that Ofelia was reading all of those fairy tales and that she was under a lot of stress and surrounded by conflict could cause her to start to imagine things. In my opinion however, I do believe that the alternate world did exist because when Ofelia put the root under her mother’s bed, she did indeed get unexplainably better and when it was thrown in the fire, she went back to deteriorating health. I think it would be a better story anyway if it was real and not a mental delusion from Ofelia from reading all those fairy tales.

response paper Oedipus

Finn McNally
LIT 2000 MW 3:00-4:15
Response Paper
Oedipus

The text “Oedipus” was written about 2,500 years ago. Although it is very old, the characters are still people and behave in ways that people did and still do today. The characters of this story do indeed behave in believable ways considering what happened in the story. Oedipus is a great man but still ends up blinding and exiling himself when he learns that he killed his father and married his mother. As harsh as it is, it is very believable because of the fact that Oedipus was a great man and leader and felt that he deserved this fate for what he had done. The fact that his wife and mother Jocasta killed herself is believable as well because of the extreme severity of what she learns at the end of the story. Everyone in the story behaves as normal people would, especially since the context of the story takes place so long ago when this story would be more believable.
The driving force of the dramatic energy of this text would have to be dramatic irony. The audience knows things that characters do not. There are many allusions to Oedipus being blind and the things he has done long before he actually figures these things out in the story. The greatest shift in the tone and mood of this story takes place when Oedipus questions the Shepard that found him and it is discovered that he did, in fact, kill his real father and marry his mother. When this takes place everything clicks in their heads as to what happens and that is when the plot of the story changes and everything goes downhill for Oedipus.
This story is full of Irony. It is dramatic irony because the audience knows what the characters do not learn until late in the story. It is very ironic that Oedipus can see but cannot see the truth while the prophet Tiresias is blind and is telling Oedipus the truth. The fact that in the end Oedipus pokes out his eyes enhances and adds to this theme of blind truth and irony.
Oedipus’s name translates to “Swollen Foot.” This is fitting because of the fact that Oedipus does indeed have a limp due to the fact that his ankles were bound and pierced when he was younger. This was done by his parents when they tried to kill him. For this reason Oedipus’s name helps reinforce his actions but also his revelations when it is revealed to him that his wife/mother actually did that to him, there is no doubt that his wife really is his biological mother.
This story reminded me a lot of the movie “The Matrix.” It contains oracles and prophecies. Most importantly though both texts contain one main character that must sacrifice themselves for the good of their civilization. In “Oedipus,” Oedipus must exile himself in order to rid the city of Thebes of the plague and hard times that is prevalent. In “The Matrix,” Neo must sacrifice himself and put himself in harm’s way in order to save the whole world.