When Ofelia had to choose between the three doors, I was reminded of The Merchant of Venice and older fairy tales where the hero has to choose between the gold, silver, and lead caskets. It seemed that the door she choose was not as fancy as the other two–the equivalent of the lead casket.
What made the violence so difficult for me was how personal it was. I don’t think it was gratuitous. After all, this isn’t a fantasy in the sense that Kill Bill was. During the Spanish Civil War, ordinary people really were tortured by their own countrymen. It brought home how deeply ugly the conflict was.
I’m not sure the food is enchanted, although I suppose anything’s possible in a fairy tale. I think she has plenty of motivation to eat the food without any extra magic to tempt her – she was sent to bed without food so she’s likely very hungry, and more importantly, her confidence has been bolstered by the fact that she already disobeyed the “rules” once by opening the left door, so maybe she suspects the rule about not eating the food is bunk too. It’s pretty normal for kids to test the limits like this, although obviously it’s a dumb move (or maybe not).
Perhaps Del Torro’s theme is more nuanced than “obedience=bad, choice=good”. Maybe by showing Ofelia making some bad choices, he’s trying to emphasize that sometimes obedience is the correct path, and other times it’s not – what’s more important is the ability to make this distinction.
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An interesting analysis.
I just find it hard to imagine anyone feeling the urge to have a bite under such circumstances - in that wierd place with that creepy thing at the head of the table, having been warned repeatedly not to, etc.
[QUOTE=John Mace]
2. When Ofelia draws the first door, she does so at the bottom of the wall in her bedroom. Then she has to climb down to get to the floor of the magic room. But when she escapes, doesn’t she draw a door on the ceiling of the magic room? How then does she end up coming thru the floor of her bedroom? The new door should be higher than the old one, no? It also shouldn’t have brought her back to her own room at all, but the room behind the wall on which she drew the first door. Did I miss something, or is that just another freakish part of the fantasy world?
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I think your “sense of space” is correct. She should have wound up on the other side of the wall.
But, that’s not the continuity error that I’m picky about, so I didn’t sweat it (not that I think you are, either).
I just find it hard to imagine anyone feeling the urge to have a bite under such circumstances - in that wierd place with that creepy thing at the head of the table, having been warned repeatedly not to, etc.
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It’s one of those fairy tale things - obviously nobody would eat anything on that table under normal circumstances. You almost have to assume there was some sort of compulsion going on there.
Kind of wondered if the faun had set her up to fail - for one thing, he told her to do the quest and didn’t tell her, for example, not to eat anything until she hadn’t done it for awhile. And then it seemed like she was almost required to eat something.
[QUOTE=Trunk]
I think your “sense of space” is correct. She should have wound up on the other side of the wall.
But, that’s not the continuity error that I’m picky about, so I didn’t sweat it (not that I think you are, either).
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Actually, I thought she drew the door on the ceiling because she couldn’t draw it on the same wall the original door had been. She tries to but the chalk breaks. I took that to mean that you can’t go back the way you came. She was then smart enough to do it on the ceiling instead.
[QUOTE=audiobottle]
Actually, I thought she drew the door on the ceiling because she couldn’t draw it on the same wall the original door had been. She tries to but the chalk breaks. I took that to mean that you can’t go back the way you came. She was then smart enough to do it on the ceiling instead.
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I thought the chalk broke because she was in a panic and she should have gathered her wits (as she did) and tried again. Having the chalk break three times or having it not adhere to the wall would tell her to try elsewhere. It’s things like this that almost make me think all of this is made up as she goes along …
[QUOTE=audiobottle]
Actually, I thought she drew the door on the ceiling because she couldn’t draw it on the same wall the original door had been. She tries to but the chalk breaks. I took that to mean that you can’t go back the way you came. She was then smart enough to do it on the ceiling instead.
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I was just commenting on the “geometry” of the whole thing.
Given the position of the two doors in the “basement”, she shouldn’t have wound up in her bedroom, but in whatever room was on the other side of her bedroom wall.
[QUOTE=Trunk]
I was just commenting on the “geometry” of the whole thing.
Given the position of the two doors in the “basement”, she shouldn’t have wound up in her bedroom, but in whatever room was on the other side of her bedroom wall.
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While I have criticisms of other points in the story, I don’t worry about the geometry. That’s quite in keeping with the nature of magic doors. I would be more surprised if the relationship was maintained in the real world. It would indicate that the Pale Man’s room had a direct and immutable relationship with Ofelia’s room - that one spot in the house, on the second floor, in Spain. What then would the logical odds be of her finding the room? If they were bunked elsewhere or she drew the door on the other side of the bed then she would never be able to reach the room. No, that’s a very consistent and logical part of the story.
The fact that the chalk broke once (because she was rushing in my opinion) and she took the harder route of going through the ceiling is what I have a hard time with. The only thing that makes some sense is that she was entering her delusion at the wall, rolled around on the floor and was “waking” from her delusion in the middle of the floor. Then naturally she would have to provide the proper transition that has her ending up in the real world on the floor and that could only be if she escaped through the ceiling to her floor.
[QUOTE=Zsofia]
It’s one of those fairy tale things - obviously nobody would eat anything on that table under normal circumstances. You almost have to assume there was some sort of compulsion going on there.
Kind of wondered if the faun had set her up to fail - for one thing, he told her to do the quest and didn’t tell her, for example, not to eat anything until she hadn’t done it for awhile. And then it seemed like she was almost required to eat something.
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I agree - see my previous posts; I think that she was compelled to eat by the magic of that place, and that the true test was what she would do in the crisis.
We know that the faun was setting her up to "fail’ in various ways, and that the true test was often different from the apparent test - that is made obvious by the ending.
By making a door on the ceiling, she made it much harder for the pale thing to follow her- not to mention that she would have had to be on the floor, making her easier to catch.
