Pan s Labyrinth And Heroic Ofelia Essay - 1407 Words

Pan’s Labyrinth and Heroic Ofelia The hero is one of the most commonly seen archetypes throughout literature and film. While there are many different types of heroes, there are particular characteristics that identify a character as a hero. These characteristics are largely not in regards to who the hero is: personality traits, beliefs, or values – rather, these attributes concern the hero’s journey and the actions the hero takes while on that journey. In Guillermo Del Toro’s film, Pan’s Labyrinth, Ofelia is an archetypal hero because she is born into royalty, leaves her family and land, goes on an adventure, receives supernatural help, proves herself many times, and is rewarded spiritually when she dies. The first indication that Ofelia is a heroic character is that she is born into royalty and then leaves her family and land. According to Bryan Davis, two characteristics of an archetypal hero are that their birth occurs under unusual circumstances – such as being born into royalty – and that the hero leaves their family and land, and goes to live with someone else (Davis). At the beginning of Pan’s Labyrinth, the narrator tells a story about a princess who dreamt of the human world. The princess escaped from her family and went to the human world, where she was blinded by the sun and her memory was erased. The story continues to state that the princess eventually died in the human world, but her father (king of the underworld) believed that her soul would one day return