In Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, different elements of mise en scene such as props, sets and clothing design can be interpreted in different ways to give different meanings. In the paleman scene, the audience sees a close-up of a pile of shoes on the ground. One way this can be interpreted is that they are the shoes of the incorrect princesses, therefore heightening the sense of danger in the audience. Another interpretation is that they have a contextual link to World War 2 and the Nazi’s with concentration camps; which could link to the theme of how war effects children, provoking the response in the audience to consider the deeper meaning of what’s happening to Ofelia, and the tragedy of war. This links into the horrific images around the paleman’s room of children and babies being killed, although some interpretations of this is that it foreshadows the third task with Ofelia’s brother, the main interpretation is that they are inspired by Goya’s painting of Saturn eating his son. The interpretation of that painting is that Goya was scared that his child would grow up and overpower him, and therefore killed him; this links back to world war 2, when the Nazi’s targeted children because of their “dangerous” beliefs.

The paleman himself can be interpreted in many ways. His physical appearance makes him scary, because of his long sharp fingers, incredibly skinny body, sagging skin and his eye hands. Meaning that one interpretation of the paleman is to just evoke fear in the audience to help build tension in the scene. Another interpretation is that the paleman represents Vidal and fascism, and that this is the true meaning for this scene to exist; he sits in the same place that Vidal does – at the head of the table (proxemics) showing the dangers of fascism, and he attacks when Ofelia disobeys, linking to the theme of disobedience and choice and how fascism is commonly linked with obedience and lack of choice. However, the other interpretations of the paleman can be religious. The table with red food that he sits at, although initially cause a tense atmosphere because of the danger connotations to red, have a link to the famous last supper painting as the room itself is similar to that of a church due to the pillars. Plus, the stigmata with his hands, the holes where he puts his eyes, not only cause disgust but link to Jesus being crucified. Linking the paleman to a religious figure represents the critical views towards the church during the Spanish Civil War, this was also shown earlier in the film when the priest was greedily eating food when knowing others were starving. This religious symbolism is an aspect in many Del Toro films, it’s an aesthetic and Del Toro-ism, it’s also used in “The Devils Backbone” which is none as a sister film to Pan’s Labyrinth.  To contrast, the holes in his hands may also be a link to another scene in the film, when Vidal and his men find the rebels and start to kill them. One of the rebels puts his hand in-front of the gun in an elongated moment, before being shot directly in the centre of his hand where the paleman’s eye’s go. Suggesting again the importance of choice (hand) and morals (sight) being something that should be united, as killing mercilessly due to obeying is obviously wrong and fake choice (obedience) without thinking of morals.

The watch prop which is a part of mise en scene can be interpreted as a metonym for Vidal, that it stands in for everything that Vidal is and represents who he is as a person. The watch face being cracked, shows the audience that he is a broken man, most likely due to the toxic masculinity (representation of gender) that his father placed upon him; he smashed his watch at the time he died, and would have encouraged Vidal to act and die like a man, making Vidal a cold character that has a big and mean reputation that he cares about greatly, but also damages him as a person because he’s forced to conform. A different interpretation is that the watch is a symbol of morality, the ticking of it going and his father smashing it when he died reminds the audience that the characters and that they themselves are mortal, creating the aesthetic feel of a gothic and/or horror movie, which are genres Del Toro often explores.

The use of colour and therefore aesthetic look and feel of the costume design can mean different things. Ofelia typically wears green dresses such as at the beginning when she see’s the fairy and when she enters the toad tree. However, when she is in the fantasy world after dying at the end of the movie, she wears red and gold. As the real world is typically blue (low-key blue lighting) as its connotation is coldness (and it has a link to fascism), the green outfits suggest a link to the real world as the shades used are both dull and they are often associated with one another. Meaning, the red and gold outfit is those colours because the fantasy world normally has yellow high-key lighting, with yellow/gold and red surroundings such as props. This could be done to help identify the two worlds and the feelings attached as gold and red are warmer colours, or to show how Ofelia always belonged in the fantasy world as she removes her green dress before entering the tree (fantasy world). Another interpretation, which Del Toro has spoken about, is that red and gold were used because they were internal colours, it showed Ofelia’s desire to be back inside her mother which has links to loneliness because of the war taking her dad away and Vidal taking her mum (genre of how the war effects children). Hence why Ofelia physically crawls into the tree which symbolises fallopian tubes wear the insides are internal colours and why she is reborn at the end of the movie. It’s also part of the coming of age/bildungsroman genre of the film to do with Ofelia being on the cusp of womanhood. This links to the fallopian tube symbolism and imagery through the film due to mise en scene which is used for the toad tree, the shape that the faun’s horns make, the shape that the paleman’s arms make in the book and the shape of the blood that appears in the book, it becomes a motif as it’s symbol is portrayed many times.

Lastly, the chairs at the end of the movie where Ofelia’s parents sit have different interpretations too. One is the symbol and suggestion of royalty and the idea that the patriarchy still exists in the afterlife, as well as sexism as the dad is the highest, possibly suggesting the aftermath of the Spanish civil war as issues still carried on after, it didn’t all stop in 1939. Another interpretation is that it links to the genre of bildungsroman/coming of age, that Ofelia has grown up and no longer is treated like a child and is greeted like an adult, or that the representation of young children is that the film has proven children shouldn’t be and do not need to be spoken down upon as if they were lesser like Vidal and Carmen does to Ofelia. The other interpretation is plot and narrative related, that the seats are impossibly high because Ofelia has proved herself as the lost princess and can therefore still sit upon the chair, despite it’s impossible height.