`Pans Labyrinth` and `Oedipus the King`

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A New Historicism Reading of Guillermo del Toro 's Pan 's Labyrinth and Sophocles ' Oedipus the King

When movies or novels are being reviewed , critics never forget to include an analysis of the characters , plot , setting , themes , and directing or writing style of the directors and . Often than not critics focus on how the said elements blend . They review whether a director or a writer was successful in blending such components of film and story . It is very seldom to read a film

or novel critique that emphasizes on the historical basis of the stories . New Historicism lives on the premise that a certain text can never be separated from the political , social , and economic situations present during the time it was written . Such kind of criticism will be used in analyzing two widely-acclaimed stories - Guillermo del Toro 's Pan 's Labyrinth ' and Sophocles ' Oedipus the King . By using New Historicism , it can be said that need for power generate historical and cultural events , which in return are used by artists to create and produce their masterpiece

Pan 's Labyrinth ' is a 2006 movie telling the tale of a young girl named Ofelia amidst the post-Civilian War in Spain . Her mother , Carmen has just remarried a colonel and brought Ofelia in his house . In this house , the young girl discovered a labyrinth wherein she met the magical creature Pan , telling her the she is the lost princess of the Underworld Realm - princess Moanna . To find the truth about her identity , Ofelia has to take three dangerous tasks . The first task of retrieving a key from the belly of a giant toad was done successfully . The second was a failure , as Ofelia did not succeed to use the retrieved key in getting the ornate dagger from the Pale Man 's lair . Because of this , Pan did not reveal to her the third task until the time he decided to give Ofelia another chance . Ofelia managed to do the third task as she sacrificed her own life instead of her baby brother 's . At the end of the story Ofelia returned to the Underworld Realm and lived immortally . On the other hand , the story of Oedipus the King ' is a portrayal of how difficult it is to alter a man 's fate . The play opens when Oedipus , King of Thebes is in search for the cure to the plague that harms the kingdom . The audience will then be directed to events before the opening scene . It would be discovered that Oedipus , even before crowned as king was prophesied to be the killer of his own father and husband to his own mother . He was sent away by his own parents to avoid the prophecy However , years later , Oedipus had killed a man named Laius and crowned as King of Thebes after he got the right answer to the Sphinx 's riddle freeing the kingdom from plague . He married Jocasta and they had four children . The...