Pale Man Analysis:
Within the pale man scene of “Pan's Labyrinth” an array of contexts is applicable. Firstly, the historical context takes place in the post-civil war of Spain in 1944 where people were destitute of food making it a vital necessity in order to survive. This is portrayed within the scene through the large pile of garments worn by the children who have been entirely eaten by the pale man. Coupled with the large banquet in the pale man's lair would cause people of that era to salivate due to its lavishness. Furthermore, the paintings amid the wall portraying the pale man consuming the children connotes the horrific events that have taken place during the war. In addition, the paintings amid the wall depict the children seeming as though they are begging for mercy, however, the pale man shows no leniency and eats them without hesitancy implying that people during the era of the war are ruthless and lack a sense of humanity. This horror of the war is further emphasized when the pale man is chasing Ofelia, the screams being resonated are similar to that of a child in purgatory connoting the number of innocent children that have been harmed or killed during the war. Moreover, the pale man guards the banquet to blight any freedom of will such as when Ofelia attempts to consume a grape seeing that the pale man seemed to be within a deep slumber. This illustrates the fascism during the civil war in Spain.
Besides historical context, cultural context is also applicable in the pale man scene. This is because the pale man closely resembles the Japanese mythological creature known as the “Tenome”. This is because the Tenome and pale man both have eyeballs on its hands.
Comparitive study:
Pans labyrinths historical context takes place in the post-civil war of Spain in 1944 where people were destitute of food making it a vital necessity in order to survive. During the time Spain was completely worn down due to the conflict between the fascists and the rebel guerrillas. As a whole the film portrays the purgatory and turmoil of the war and how it adversely affects the innocent, in this case, the protagonist Ofelia who dwells within a fantasy world in order to enjoy the pleasure of escapism. This connotes to the audience a sense of diversion. As for cultural context, the western fairy tales that Ofelia voraciously reads has contributed to her interpretation of using the fantasy world as a way to interpret the happenings in the real world.
The shape of water is set in 1962 in Baltimore during the cold war era and during the time many scientific investigations had taken place ranging from biomedicine to rocket science. This has been portrayed through the reflection theory as the scientist Robert uses the fishman as means to make a scientific breakthrough in order to have a competitive edge over the Soviet Union. This is similar to that of pans labyrinth that is set within a war context. As for cultural context, the film encompasses the superficial elements of the cold war era, such as the trepidation that US has for the Soviet Union and the music deriving from Glenn Miller. On a deeper level, the film is akin to that of Pans labyrinth in which both include narrative elements of fairy tales. In the shape of water the relationship of the fishman and Elisa is akin to that of the beauty and the beast seeming as though Ofelia seems to be the only one that is able to emphasize with the fishman.
In terms of the characters Ofelia and Elisa, both characters are peculiar in a sense that both movies connotate that they do not originate from the worlds that they resided in at the beginning of the movie, Ofelia coming from the underworld and Elisa being a hybrid. Both movies are similar due to the portraying of both characters seeming as though they cannot comprehend the world in which they’ve been living in. An example would be Elisa as her mind does not seem to be able to cope with the fact that rescuing a fishman from a military base is against the law coupled with the fact that she is a mute and the fishman at the end of the movie can so easily create a gill for her connotes that she may be a hybrid mix between the human and fishman race. Both characters also have representations that are contradictory to that of the conventional passive and demure female but rather they are shown to be post-feminist, an example would be Elisa as she demonstrates her tenacity to rescue the fishman from the grasps of the military without showing any signs of perturbation. This emphasizes a dominant representation of confident women.
