Significant Context

Question 1

Who is the director of Pan’s Labyrinth?

Answer 1

Guillermo Del Toro (1964 - present)

Question 1

When is the film taking place?

Answer 1

• Spain 1944
• The armed forces are still fighting the Fascist Regime who are hidden in the mountains

Question 2

What is the gender stereotypes at the time of the film?

Answer 2

• Women were seen as inferior and weak, according to the social hierarchy and fascist dictatorship
• Meant to be subservient
• Men were viewed as dominant.

Question 3

How is Vidal and his soldiers a microcosm of Franco and the fascist regime?

Answer 3

• Fascism is the belief of a hierarchy in which women and children has no say and were inferior (typical in a fascist regime)
• Seen in Vidal’s inclination to have control even over uncontrollable things
• Vidal - the physical manifestation of Franco the dictator of Spain – introduced to the military world of fascists.
• Historical context linked to war.
• Vidal’s expectation to have a male child to carry on his legacy (Male primogeniture)

Question 4

How does Ofelia’s story link to the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 4

“Forgotten and lost at the top of that cold, dark mountain… Forever alone, until the end of time” - then the shot cuts to Vidal, who stand in the way of the rose.

• The rose = the Republicans who died the in Civil war and have been forgotten under Franco’s Regime (and under the ‘pact of silence’) - and the rebel Republicans on the mountain.
• Del Toro’s way of criticising the ‘pact of silence’ and how it undermined the value of the lives lost, and that those lives fought for social equality against the fascist regime and that lives deserved to be remembered

Question 5

What does the unjust murder of the farmers represent?

Answer 5

The prejudice against working class people.

Question 6

How does the toad link to the Spanish Civil War?

Answer 6

“Aren’t you ashamed? Living down here, eating all these bugs and growing fat while the tree dies?”

• Represents the policy of the fascist government that leads to death and destruction
• Could link to the problems of the Pact of Silence
• The toad is living underground and out of sight, linking to how the lost lives and the drastic effects were prevented from being talked about (out of sight).