Ophelia's Tasks

I have to say I thought for a long time about this, trying to piece together the different associations and symbols with the vague ideas that I got while watching the movie this time, and this is what I came up with, for better or for worse.

Ophelia’s ultimate desire is to escape from the world in which she lives, the world where there is war and death and her mother marrying a man Ophelia clearly doesn’t like. When she meets the Faun, although he also does not seem to be the most trustworthy of characters, he offers a way out for her, and possibly for her brother.
I see Ophelia’s tests as being ultimately tests of disobedience and understanding, tests that eventually lead to her not escaping the world by any means possible, but facing the reality of her family, of her brother and denying an ultimately authoritarian request of the Faun, just like she denied the authority of Captain Vidal.
At the same time, her tests are closely paralleled with Mercedes’ real-life tests. Mercedes, ultimately, also does not want to live in the present world, the world where fascism is winning, and that is why she is part of the rebels, living her own version of a secret life that has little to do with fairytales, but at times just as reliant on miracles.
The first test where Ophelia ultimately destroys her evening dress by going into the lair of a giant toad. She is asserting her own identity, saying ‘I am Princess Moana and I’m not afraid of you”, hearkening back to stories of tests that require a steadfastness of spirit and resolve (‘The Magic Brocade, for example, with the ice-sea and fire-mountain). Of course, it also directly references back to “the Devil’s Three Golden Hairs”. She is performing a task of healing, of creation, of removing a disease, taking control over something in the world since her destiny she cannot control. Ultimately, she is punished for it, but that, in a way, once makes her test more valid.
Mercedes, in a similar time-frame, is also performing a test of healing – she convinces the doctor to go up with her into the mountains to cut off a diseased limb so that one of the rebels might live. Although Mercedes’ entire life is a test of disobedience, the doctor, who is portrayed as a true doctor to whom human suffering is abhorrent no matter what anybody else says, joins her in this test. In addition to this, Mercedes also procures the key to the storehouse, the second key in the film, and ultimately, this disobedience leads to her second test.
The second test in Ophelia’s world interesting, because I noticed a parallel in it I did not notice when watching the movie before. The Pale Man’s position at the table, and even the entire set-up of the room is very similar to the Captain’s position in the banquet hall, another echo of Ophelia’s ‘real’ life in her fairy-tale tests. To say that the fairy tale does not exist is to bring up a contested point, I think it has as much place in the narrative as anything else, and the tests Ophelia is given by the Faun ultimately have to draw upon her greatest fears and her greatest challenges – and those are the challenges she faces in the real world.
In the second test, she disobeys the task itself by eating the grapes – a Bluebeard type of story. However, since the tests are all about her disobedience, this was necessary, otherwise she would never have had to learn that with disobedience can come death. Without knowing both sides of her actions, she would not be strong enough to face the Captain at the end of the film, and, indeed, she would not have a complete picture of what her own actions might entail. In addition, however, she learns that by asserting herself in a situation, and not being a deer in the headlights of her own fear, she can escape even the greatest peril, even a mythological beast. In this test she procures a dagger, but does not use it on the Pale Man, the idea of violence is still abhorrent to her, because of her innocence. Not so in Mercedes’ case.
In Mercedes’ world, her disobedience procures food and arms for the rebels, but lands her in a position of facing the best. However, Captain Vidal underestimates her and Mercedes uses the knife she carries around with her to take complete control of the situation. She is asserting a position of power over an authority, but ultimately loses the ability to stay in the household and continue to do her work. She is, just like Ophelia, saved in the nick of time by the rebels, narrowly escaping Vidal’s soldiers.
The last test is once again the denial of authority by both Ophelia and Mercedes, resulting in a two-fold bittersweet ending on both sides. Ophelia refuses to hand over her son for the promise of a fantasy kingdom, and ultimately dies. Whether she achieves the Otherworld of the film is unclear, but her actions proved that she is willing to disobey, and ultimately, this disobedience is the only thing that can get her into the Otherworld, if it is indeed real. Disobedience is linked with purity of heart and free thought, because the authority is ultimately fascism, which is characterized by unthinking obedience.
Mercedes refuses to pass on another myth, when faced with the Captain – the myth of his watch, his name, his story. She refuses humanity to fascism, just like Ophelia asserted her own humanity.
In a way, both endings are bittersweet. The rebels are triumphant, but we know from history that they failed in the end. Ophelia dies, but the film gives us hope that she did not die in vain.
Ultimately, I’m sure I didn’t cover even half of the symbolism and meaning in Ophelia’s tests, so anybody who wants to join in – it’s a fascinating topic.

Here’s also an interesting discussion board and analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth: http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/02/pans_labyrinth_.html