In its fantasy elements the film resembles an adult fairy story where a character faces a quest, and if they make good choices they live happily ever after. The opening words set the scene:
“Cuentan que hace mucho mucho tiempo…”
With the opening shot of the dying Ofelia the theme of freedom is there from the start, with death as the curtailment of the freedom of life.
The reign of the tyrant, Vidal, ends with his death, but that of the martyr, Ofelia starts with hers. Del Toro has stated that he was influenced by Kierkegaard’s quotation, making choice, death and freedom central themes of the film:
"Siempre pienso en esa hermosa cita de Søren Kierkegaard que dice que el reinado del tirano termina con su muerte, pero el reinado del mártir comienza con su muerte. Creo que esa es la esencia de la película; se trata de vivir para siempre eligiendo cómo morir ".
(Horrorhazard)
Vidal has little regard for women. To Mercedes he says, “No es más que una mujer”. He also humiliates his wife:
VIDAL: Perdonen a mi mujer. No ha visto mucho mundo ¿Saben? Cree que a todos nos interesan esas tonterías.
Carmen appears little more than a reproductive vehicle. Her vulnerability and distress may be a metaphor for the effect of Vidal’s treatment, something she is largely unable to resist through her pregnancy. Perhaps her harsh words to Ofelia, indicate she has been brutalised by him:
CARMEN: Las cosas no son tan simples, te estás haciendo mayor, y pronto entenderás que la vida no es como en tus cuentos de hadas, el mundo es un lugar cruel. Y eso vas a aprenderlo, aunque te duela. La magia no existe.
She is a cipher for the downtrodden female trapped by biology, circumstance and expectation in a macho society where, according to the captain, people are not equal:
VIDAL: Yo estoy aquí porque quiero que mi hijo nazca en una España limpia y nueva. Porque esta gente parte de una idea equivocada, que somos todos iguales. Pero hay una gran diferencia: que la guerra terminó y ganamos nosotros.
What freedom has Ofelia? Within the fantasy she manages to kill the toad and retrieve the dagger but has obeyed the faun. The origin of her name means “helper”, anything but independent, whereas ‘Moanna’, her alter ego, means “ocean”, something unfathomable and complex.
Ofelia’s first real choice is when she refuses to obey the faun:
FAUNO: El portal solo se abrirá si derramamos en él sangre inocente.Solo un poco de sangre. Un pinchazo tan solo ... es la última prueba. Prometistéis obedecerme sin chistar Entregadme al niño.
OFELIA: No. Mi hermano se queda conmigo .
FAUNO: ¿Sacrificaréis vuestro derecho sagrado- por este mocoso al que apenas conocéis?
OFELIA: Si. Lo sacrifico.
FAUNO: ¿Negareís vuestra cuna por él- El, por quien habéis sido humillada, ignorada?
OFELIA: Sí. La Niego.
FAUNO: Hágase pues vuestra voluntad, alteza.
Immediately afterwards she objects to Vidal taking the baby, so he shoots her. It is a metaphorical sacrifice, the price to be paid so that the cycle of machismo, unquestioning obedience and violence ends. It allows a new world order, a world of more equality, freedom, perhaps even a gynocracy, where strong women like Mercedes lead. The baby symbolises hope.
Resurrected as Princess Moanna her royal father says: Habéis derramado vuestra sangre antes que la de un inocente.
This clarifies that it is not obedience, but making good choices, that counts for moral behaviour. Ofelia’s “resurrection” suggests that the moral power of making good choices is so strong as to be restorative.
Ofelia is the most ambiguous and complex character but also dependent on the adults in the film for subsistence and on the faun for guidance. The repressive Francoist politics and values of her surroundings empower neither females nor children.
Ofelia’s blood dripping on to the stone statue in the labyrinth: recalls the faun's words explaining the sculpture: “Ese soy yo, y la niña sois vos …”
The fact that Ofelia is sculpted into stone implies a fixed destiny. Where does that leave Ofelia and Mercedes’ refusal to obey? Were their actions predestined? Or, more problematically, was Ofelia’s destiny fixed but Mercedes’ not?
Fairy stories follow standard forms for conveying a moral message about, ironically, choice. This formula implies that perhaps Ofelia was destined to die, unfree simply by virtue of being in a fairy story. If true we would also have to recognise the untenable point that the other humans do not have agency simply because they are characters in a film. We can only conclude that Ofelia does break with her childhood, and Fascism, with agency and sacrifice.
Mercedes represents resistance to oppressive militarism. Her name comes from the Latin ‘merces’ meaning "wages, or reward". Her brave actions indeed bring the reward of freedom. She and the Maquis support one another ensuring that good choices, not gender, resist tyranny.
Mercedes addresses Vidal with particular servility: “Como usted mande, señor,” and, “Al señor no le interesa lo que alguien como yo piense.” Yet she makes dangerous choices, helping the Maquis and stealing the key to the food barn. She tells her brother:
MERCEDES: Soy una cobarde.
PEDRO: No lo eres.
MERCEDES: Sí, una cobarde, una mierda. Todo el día metida ahí, al lado de ese hijo de puta.
But her position is ultimately her strength; by exercising autonomy, even at personal risk, she is able to trick Vidal: “Por eso pude estar cerca - porque yo era invisible para usted.” Her courage in rebellion puts paid to any idea that she might be a coward.
Mercedes is neither subjugated like Carmen, nor in a fairy tale like Ofelia. As the principal adult female she is the only real counterpoint to Vidal. Ofelia and Mercedes’ choices undermine the negative themes of repression and routine. They prevail as the optimistic positive force for the future.
Vidal lives a life of professional violence, the repressor, not the repressed so ostensibly is free: “Por encima de mí no hay nadie.”
But military life is based on unquestioning obedience. Dr Ferreiro is shot for insubordination just after telling Vidal that obedience is the opposite of reflective thought:
VIDAL: Podría haberme obedecido.
DOCTOR: Podría, sí, pero no lo hice.
VIDAL: Pues hubiera sido mejor para usted. ¿Eso lo sabe? Dígame- ¿Porqué no me obedeció?
DOCTOR: Es que, obedecer, por obedecer, así, sin pensarlo…Sólo lo hacen gentes como usted, Capitán.
Military life also presupposes lack of choice. Yet at the banquet, Vidal asserts, “Todos estamos aquí por gusto.” Ironically, sheeplike, his followers repeat “Por gusto”.
Vidal is connected with routines, which preclude choice. We see him shaving repeatedly. Time is connected to routine: he repeatedly checks the leitmotif of his father’s broken watch. These routines sometimes manifest themselves in cruelty: he repeats the same words when torturing El Tarta, and when preparing to torture Mercedes: “Pero, precisamente por eso, hemos traído algunas cosillas. Nada complicado. Cosas que aprende uno por ahí. Mira, al principio, no voy a poder confiar en tí…“
Cinematographically, at the banquet, central framing emphasises Vidal’s power. His intolerance of others’ autonomy: “Y si para que nos enteremos todos hay que matar a esos hijos de puta, pues los matamos y ya está,” echoes General Emilio Mola’s in real Francoist Spain (1936):
“Hay que sembrar el terror…. Hay que dejar la sensación de dominio eliminando sin escrúpulos ni vacilación a todos los que no piensen como nosotros.” (Albert, 2020).
When Vidal emerges from the labyrinth to face Mercedes and the Maquis, central framing emphasises the scale of his defeat. Instead it is the female servant who ultimately has power.
Mercedes, the Maquis, Ofelia, are all morally free through their choices despite their circumstantial constraints. Vidal, apparently the most autonomous, is morally, psychologically and literally impoverished, trapped by routine, hierarchy, the past and his poor choices.
Finally, Vidal prepares to pass on to his son the same words and traditional male values of power and military glory that his father passed to him. Mercedes’ intervention shows how automated thinking can be overruled by informed moral choice.
VIDAL: Decidle a mi hijo, decidle la hora en que morí, decidle, que su padre…
MERCEDES: No. Nunca sabrá tu nombre.
But did Vidal have free will? He was burdened with the legend of his father:
CAPITÁN GUARDIA CIVIL: Dejó detrás una curiosa leyenda: Los hombres de la tropa decían, que cuando murió, en el campo de batalla estrelló su reloj contra el suelo para que constara la hora exacta de su muerte. Para que su hijo supiera como muere un valiente.
His denial of it suggests resentment:
VIDAL: se cubre el bolsillo donde lleva el reloj y luego: Son habladurías. Nunca tuvo un reloj.
There are other hints that he is unhappy with this inheritance. When asked about his father he replies abruptly, “Un gran militar.” Shaving, he mimes cutting his own throat suggesting that he feels so trapped he considers suicide.
Tortured, El Tarta make the kind of principled choices which seem unavailable to Vidal:
TARTA: Hablé- muy p-p-poco pero hablé ...
DOCTOR: Lo siento- lo siento muchísimo.
TARTA: M-m-mateme. Máteme ahora por favor.
The film does not explore whether Vidal could have chosen otherwise, except indirectly, through Ofelia’s choice to disobey the faun. This hints that perhaps we all have free will; the question is whether we choose to exercise it.
For most of the film it is unclear whether the faun has Ofelia’s best interests at heart. Mercedes reminds us: “Mi abuela me decía que con los faunos hay que andarse con cuidado.”
He appears in the harsher lighting of the real life scenes, not the warmer tones of the fantasy, emphasising his morally ambiguous character.
The faun is not free in that he appears to be an agent of the king but otherwise exercises autonomy. More important is his effect on Ofelia’s agency. Initially, she sees him as a guide. The point when he proposes cutting the baby marks her maturity. She realises he may not be all he seems and that she has to take responsibility.
The audience, too, is not sure whether to trust the faun. He appears manipulative, untrustworthy, tyrannical and his tone often ironic. He demands that Ofelia obey him unquestioningly. He is not a copy of the Captain’s misogyny, nor has he a political alignment with the right, like the military, but he shares tyrannical traits with Vidal. The uncertainty that we, and ultimately Ofelia, feel is what indicates the possibility of choice.
When the faun confirms that Ofelia chose well in not obeying him, “Habéis elegido bien, Majestad,” applause from an unseen audience confirms him as trustworthy. The faun’s role therefore is principally as a catalyst for Ofelia to make her own choices.
In a 2006 interview director Guillermo del Toro explained the political motivation behind the film:
“La realidad es que en el mundo entero el péndulo político está teniendo un regreso a la derecha. Cada día y cada vez más esa derechización se vuelve más constante y preocupante. Eso es la realidad global y creo que me interesaba mucho presentar la idea de que aquellos que vivimos un mundo imaginario tenemos a la vez la gran responsabilidad de mantener esa imaginación y libertad vivas. El mundo espiritual o el mundo imaginario nos dan una libertad que contrasta con los preceptos de las instituciones que quieren que obedezcas porque sí. Pensé que la forma de fabular una idea como ésta era un cuento de hadas, un cuento profundamente perturbador y para adultos y de ahí es donde surge esa película.” (‘El Pais’ interview with Aurora Intxausti)
Reflecting this, Mercedes and the Maquis represent freedom whereas Vidal symbolises right wing oppression. Neither Ofelia, a child, nor the faun, a fantasy creature, can have political alignment. Instead, together they represent the power of imagination as a path to freedom under repression.
In conclusion, despite the tragic beginning and ending, ‘El Laberinto del Fauno’ is ultimately an optimistic film because the strong female characters make courageous and empowering choices, supported by their allies. It is the age old story of “la poderosa representación del mal implacable y el bien resistente” (El Mundo, 2006). With Ofelia’s sacrifice, Vidal’s death, the survival of Mercedes, the partisans and the baby, the sense is that those good moral choices have won through and that the prize is freedom from tyranny.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Juan Francisco Albert: ‘El Laberinto del Fauno’: lecciones de actualidad desde la posguerra; https://aldescubierto.org/2020/07/13/el-laberinto-del-fauno-lecciones-de-actualidad-desde-la-posguerra/ Accessed 1.3.22
Carlos Boyero: “La imaginativa e inquietante 'El laberinto del fauno' despide con brillantez la grisácea sección oficial”;
https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/05/28/cultura/1148789007.html Accessed 1.3.22
Aurora Intxausti : "Mi imaginación es imposible de domesticar"
https://elpais.com/diario/2006/10/06/cine/1160085601_850215.html
Accessed 1.3.22
Curiosidades: Laberinto del Fauno 2006
http://www.horrorhazard.com/2021/06/curiosidades-laberinto-del-fauno-2006.html
Accessed 1.3.22
