Post for Pan

Ok,

So, really, this is quite late, but I'd like to put in my two cents worth for this week anyway...

I really enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth! True, it was disturbing and frightening at times, but it was overall enthralling and quite moving. I have to agree, two of the saddest moments were the death of the doctor and the death of the mandrake! I definitely teared up.

Also, just a little something extra to go along with the cycle discussion we had in class on Wednesday:
There's cyclical symbolism throughout the entirety of the movie (including the Persephone reference that Kalen brought up and the cycle of the moon thing), but I don't even think we touched on how the movie itself is a cycle. It begins with the bloody death of Ofelia and ends with the gun shot that brings her down. Yes, I know, "Thank you Captain Obvious," but I didn't even think about it until today.

All in all, I feel that one could write a pretty convincing feminine archetypal analysis of this movie. There are all sorts of distorted primal feminine fertility and cycle symbols. Again, something that just struck me today was the toad in the first task. Frogs and toads were animals often associated with feminine fertility in ancient societies (See Heqet, the Egyptian Fertility Goddess), and I am of the opinion that the toad sucking the life from the inside of the tree could most definitely be tied to the troubled pregnancy of Ofelia's mother. The toad, like Ofelia's mother's pregnancy, is a burden on the tree and causes it to wither; and although Ofelia rids the tree of its parasite, I am of the opinion that the death of the toad portends the difficult childbirth Ofelia's mother later faces.

Just an interesting thought.