Ambiguous stories can be as infuriating as they are fun to discuss. Weeks after watching Pan’s Labyrinth, I was looking for answers and debating with my friend about the faun, the ending, and anything that seemed unresolved. One of the most divisive questions about the film is whether the fantastical elements exist or if they are all in the protagonist’s mind. After revisiting the movie a few times, paying closer attention to detail, and researching Guillermo del Toro’s own thoughts on his story, I found elements that support both theories. Whichever you choose to believe, here are some pointers for your next friendly debate as well an additional third theory to consider.

Pan’s Labyrinth is set in Francoist Spain during the 1940s. The story follows Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) through many trials, some realistic – like helping her mother through her pregnancy complications, – and some fantastic – like sneaking into a monster’s lair to retrieve a key. Ofelia’s stepfather is a fascist captain who is in charge of eradicating the rebel forces nearby. He never shows compassion towards Ofelia and criticizes her for reading fairy tales. In an effort to escape her difficult, unforgiving life, Ofelia follows a fairy into a labyrinth, where she meets a faun who tells her she is the princess of the underworld. She is thrilled to learn that she can return to her kingdom if she completes three tasks. Ofelia disregards the rules several times, but she ultimately succeeds. Or does she?

Belief in Fantasy:
Everything onscreen really occurs. The faun, the pale man, and the toad are all real. The mandrake root and the chalk possess magic that help Ofelia complete her tasks. Ofelia really is the princess of the underworld and she returns to her kingdom, as the narrator claims.

• The mandrake root works: Ofelia’s mother’s health improves significantly after the mandrake root is introduced. When the root is destroyed in a fireplace, it takes seconds for Ofelia’s mother to collapse. Her health deteriorates exponentially and she dies. It could be a coincidence but the change is too dramatic and instant.
• Ofelia gets the mandrake root from the faun: The faun gives Ofelia the mandrake root in her room. The captain and Ofelia’s mother both see and interact with the root, so it exists. How else would Ofelia have gotten the root if the faun were imaginary? Considering all the time that Ofelia spends outside, it’s possible that she found the root herself. However, if the story takes place in the Scots Pine forests, in northwestern Spain, where filming took place, then it is impossible for Ofelia to have found the root on her own. Mandrake roots are naturally found in southern Spain.
• The walls open for Ofelia in the labyrinth: Near the end of the movie, Ofelia is running away from the captain. He chases her into the labyrinth and tension escalates as she reaches a dead end. The walls of the labyrinth magically open for her and shut behind her as the captain arrives. Surely enough, Ofelia is no longer there. There is no other way she could disappear without the use of magic.
• Ofelia enters the captain’s room: After Ofelia is locked in her room with guards posted outside her door, she manages to appear downstairs in the captain’s chambers, undetected. There is no way to do that without the magic chalk.
• Rebuttal about the captain’s inability to see the faun: The captain cannot see the faun when it is standing right in front of him in the labyrinth. It helps to remember that the captain was drugged at this point, which makes him unreliable. Del Toro purposefully differentiates the adult world and fascism with childhood and the fantasy world. Thus, it’s also likely that the captain cannot see the faun because he refuses to believe in it.
• Adults see magic items: The captain sees and picks up the magic chalk and mandrake root. Similarly, Mercedes sees the drawing of the chalk door in the attic. Even though the adults don’t see the magic items at work, their interactions with them prove that the items exist outside of Ofelia’s mind.
• Rebuttal about the story book manifestation: One of the arguments in favor of escapism – claiming that Ofelia imagines everything in order to escape her difficult reality – is that Ofelia wills herself into the story the narrator reads at the beginning, which seems to be the same one she is reading in the car. If the frame is paused, it is clear that the page she is reading is not the story about the underground princess. The words that appear onscreen are “Cura” which is “priest” and several words for animals like “white sheep” and “sparrows.” These words have nothing to do with the story she supposedly “wills herself” into.

Belief in Realism:
Ofelia imagines all of the fantastical elements of the movie to escape her reality. There is no magic, no faun, and no afterlife.

• Rebuttal about the effect of the mandrake root: Ofelia’s mother stops taking the doctor’s prescription when she starts to feel better, despite his advice to cut the dose in half instead. It makes sense for her condition to worsen, then, even if it coincides with the root burning.
• Rebuttal about acquiring the mandrake root: Ofelia spends a lot of time in the forest so it is possible for her to acquire the root on her own. Even though the filming location is in northwestern Spain, the original script places the action in a nameless, mountainous region of Spain. Even if mandrake roots can only be found in southern Spain, there is a mountain range there too: the Baetic Mountains.
• The captain cannot see the faun: Near the end, the captain reaches the center of the labyrinth and comes face-to-face with the faun. Yet, the camera angle and the shot of Ofelia standing alone suggests that the captain cannot see the towering, ancient creature just meters ahead of him. This is one of the most compelling details against the fantasy being real.
• Ofelia reads stories like the one she is in: In a video review for the Journal of American Folklore, Jack Zipes claims that after the first few scenes “it is apparent…that Ofelia is reading or dreaming this tale as she sits with her mother in the Bentley. Whatever the case may be, she wills herself into this tale, and for all intents and purposes, it is she who appropriates the tale and creates it so that she can deal with the forces…impinging on her life.” Ofelia is clearly exposed to fairy tales so it is possible for her to write herself into a similar narrative.
• The stick insect does not look like a fairy at first: In the beginning, Ofelia encounters a stick insect, which some critics call a praying mantis. Soon thereafter, she tells her mother she saw a fairy. The problem is that Ofelia has no clear reason to believe that the bug is a mythical creature, especially one that looks like a human with wings. This remark makes Ofelia unreliable from the beginning.
• Ofelia sees what she wants to see at the end: When Ofelia dies, she sees exactly what she would have wanted to see: a kind father figure, a mother, a baby brother, the faun, and all of the fairies. It may be that she gets a happy ending with everything she wants, but it makes little sense for her baby brother to be there if he is still alive in the human world. It also makes little sense for the two fairies who were previously eaten to reappear unscathed. This could be read as Ofelia feeling remorseful and imagining the fairies are still alive, despite her mistake. All this is to say that the final underworld scene is all in Ofelia’s mind.

Bonus:

A detail that stayed with me is Ofelia’s decision to choose the door on the left when she is in the Pale Man’s lair. The Book of Crossroads, the giant book that the faun gives Ofelia to show her “what must be done,” has an illustration of a girl unlocking the middle door. The fairies all guide Ofelia toward the middle door as well. Despite all of this, Ofelia inexplicably chooses a different option. After a brief silence, she confidently reaches towards the leftmost door and unlocks it. Surely enough, this was the door with the dagger and opening it did not awaken the Pale Man. How did Ofelia know that was the right door?

I admit there is not a lot of evidence for this theory, but it was interesting and disturbing to consider. It is based off the pile of children’s shoes. They are all around the same size and they seem to be the only evidence of previous visitors – without considering the paintings on the ceiling, which seem to take place in another time and place. What if all of those shoes belong to previous reincarnations of Ofelia? The story about the princess of the underground suggests that the princess’s soul has wandered for at least one lifetime among mortals. What if the princess’s soul has gone through these trials many times already, failing for different reasons and forced to start all over again? This could somehow explain why Ofelia knows which door to choose: because she has been there before.

In an interview, Guillermo del Toro states that Pan’s Labyrinth “is like a Rorschach test where, if you view it and you don't believe, you'll view the movie as, "Oh, it was all in her head." If you view it as a believer, you'll see clearly where I stand, which is it is real.” In the same interview, del Toro adds that he left three clues that tell the audience what he believes. The clues are the flower at the end, Ofelia’s appearance in the captain’s chamber after being locked in the attic, and the labyrinth walls opening for her escape at the end. Knowing this, does your opinion change?

Written by: Isabella Massardi | Instagram

Art by: Mikael Byrd | Instagram