Pans Labrynth

How are women represented in a negative way?

Pans Labyrinth was set in the civil war in 1944; this may be why the women’s roll is seen in a very negative light. The women are shown to be week and powerless at the very beginning of the film, in my opinion this plays on the date the film is set because women had less rights back then and men overpowered women by far.

At the very beginning of the film we hear a little girl heavily breathing this represents a bad image for women instantly it shows them as scared and maybe weak, not only is it a girl heavily breathing but it sounds like a child, this shows that not only women were treated with no respect children were too and it shows that women were brought up to be incompetent and powerless. The scene were Ofelia meets the Captain is a good example, Ofelia innocently holds out her hand with a scared face and instead of being gentle towards her he is harsh and says that she has the wrong hand, this is not a nice introduction to their relationship and the fact she is below looking scared and he is above looking over her shows his power and strength. The fact that she had to shake his hand as an introduction and she is a young child doesn’t really show a relationship this shows he doesn’t really care about her feeling comfortable with him instead he lets her become scared of him. This could represent why she is there, it represents she’s there for a reason, because he wants something not because he wants to protect them and start a family.

In a part of the film, roughly at the beginning the Captain and the Doctor have a conversation, the doctor says that the pregnant woman shouldn’t have travelled she should have stayed were she was because she is too ill and the Captain reply’s that ‘a son should be born were his father is’, the fact that he doesn’t talk or show any signs of caring about the woman’s well-being he just cares that the baby be with him shows woman in a bad light, it shows that he doesn’t care about the women he just cares about the boy being born. Another scene were the Captain talks only about his son is when Ofelia hears him say to the Doctor ‘if you have to choose, choose the baby’ this shows he would rather the baby be born then the woman be healthy and well again. This shows the Captain sees the woman as an object that is used to give birth to the son so the son can be brought up to take after the Captains roll and so the Captains name will live on after his death. The fact the women dies for a boy shows men taking over women and women being pushed behind the men.

In my opinion the woman are pursued in a really bad light all because of the men and the Captain really over powering them but I don’t think the women really help for example when Ofelia’s Mother find the thing under the bed which is helping her even though Ofelia tries to tell her different she still throws it into the fire and this probably shows women are under the influence of the men and they do as the men want because they have been brought up with it all their life I think this because the pregnant women does exactly what the Captains says even though he treats her in a bad way and doesn’t respect her.