Pan’s Labyrinth Essay Planning

Pan’s Labyrinth Choose a film or TV drama in which a particular sequence is crucial to your understanding of an important theme. By referring to the sequence and to the text as a whole, show why you consider the sequence to be so important to your understanding of the theme.

Pan’s Labyrinth Choose a film or TV drama in which a particular sequence is crucial to your understanding of an important theme. By referring to the sequence and to the text as a whole, show why you consider the sequence to be so important to your understanding of the theme.

Step 1 – Planning Choose a sequence & a theme: –Opening sequence / theme of imagination? –The pale man / theme of choice/innocence?

Step 2 - Planning Brainstorm points to make about sequence & theme: Ofelia’s choices – which door / to eat a grape Consequences of her choices – good and bad Relationship between themes of choice and innocence: can you make innocent choices? Is choice what separates children from adults? Mise-en-scene of sequence – connotations of church, pale man as devourer of innocence Ofelia’s choices throughout film – do they have good or bad results? (final sequence)

Step 3 – Writing the essay Introduction: – name of film, director, –brief summary of film’s main concerns with relation to question –Task statement which makes it clear how you are going to tackle the question

Example Introduction Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo del Toro, is a film which explores the nature of innocence, and how it can be sustained or lost through the choices we make. The film follows the adventures of Ofelia, an imaginative young girl who is taken to stay with her fascist step- father in post-Civil War Spain. She is torn between two worlds – the bleak, loveless violence of the “real world” and the no less dangerous but far more vivid fairytale world in which she must complete three tasks given her by a mysterious faun, in order to prove her identity as Moanna, princess of the underworld. The sequence which deals with the second of these tasks (stealing a dagger from the lair of the nightmarish “pale man”) is one of the film’s most profound explorations of the relationship between choice and innocence.

Main body of the essay You need to make at least four substantial points which are relevant to the task, which analyse evidence from the text, and which show your ability to evaluate (reflect on, make judgements about) that evidence. In a good essay, these points would develop a logical and interesting argument / line of thought in response to the question.

Main body of the essay A simple way to organise each paragraph is to follow this three-part structure: Point - a topic sentence which makes a clear, relevant point about the text Evidence – some sort of textual evidence which supports the point you are making Comment – detailed commentary on the evidence: analyse how it supports your point; evaluate how effectively it explores the theme; give your own response / opinion; relate it back to the task

Example The two main choices Ofelia makes in this sequence show us how difficult it is to make independent choices and retain one’s innocence. The first choice she has to make is to decide which door the knife is behind. As she is making her choice, the camera lingers on her anxious face and we see the fairies urgently pointing at one of the doors. At the last moment, though, Ofelia changes her mind and chooses a different door. Point Evidence

Example continued This decision turns out well – Ofelia’s disobedience of the fairies and her determination to make her own choices for herself results on this occasion in achieving her goal as she successfully finds the knife. Her independence is vindicated, and we could see this as an example of her maturing and growing up, as the ability to make one’s own choices is one of the defining features of adulthood. However, the tense music and the desperation of the fairies as Ofelia makes her choice all suggest that it might be more appropriate to read this as the choice of a wilful or disobedient child – perhaps she was just lucky. This raises the question of her innocence – do we blame a child for the consequences of her decisions? What level of responsibility does she really have? This question becomes much more pressing as a result of the next decision Ofelia takes in this sequence, a decision with tragic consequences. Comment Link to next paragraph

Task Plan and write an essay in response to this question. Choose a film or TV drama in which a particular sequence is crucial to your understanding of an important theme. By referring to the sequence and to the text as a whole, show why you consider the sequence to be so important to your understanding of the theme.