Representation of Gender –

Men – Men, such as Captain Vidal, are represented as being overly masculine and autocratic, featuring patriarchal tendencies of being cold and having emotionless personalities. Also seen to be striving for their own goals, This is the case with Vidal, wanting an heir to his name and to crush the communist resistance.

Men, are also shown however as caring, passionate defenders who want to help others and fight for freedom such as with Mercedes Brother, Pedro and Doctor Ferreiro.

Women – Women, such as Ofelia, Carmen (Ofelias mother) and Mercedes are all patriarchally represented as subservient to men, forced to abide by their dictations and rules. However at the same time, Ofelia and Mercedes are shown as rule breakers and breaking away from the stereotypical representation by disobeying their infixed rules. For example, Ofelia dirties up her dress that her mother gifted her, goes against its stereotypical appearance of a maid-purposed outfit that she said she should feel ‘privileged’ to wear as para-phrased from her mothers words.

Another Example can be seen with Mercedes who uses her deceptive appearance as a house maid to go under the nose of captain Vidal to supply her brother and the resistance fighters with supplies to fight against the fascists and eventually hurt captain Videl.

Aesthetics –

Tone – The Tone of Pan’s labyrinth is both dark and heartfelt with elements combined to make you believe your watching a film made for children with its use of fantastical elements but also horror with the use of frightening and graphic scenes of the actions of Captain Vidal and the appearance of the Faun, fairies and Pale man.

Visual Style – Using a mix of dark and rich warm hues, the visual style is purposely used to create a visual style of a fairy-tale whilst also using darker scenes to show the bleak reality of events that fits within its historical context. The visual style as a whole shows the mixed reality Ofelia lives in of a fantastical world and also a painful real one.

Realism – Pan’s Labyrinth is a film that contains magic-realism with its use of characters such as fauns, fairies and monsters, this is used to create a fantastical world that Ofelia lives in, either as an illusion or a reality, regardless it is used to create a world far from our own to a illusive world we can escape to when watching the film.