Essay on "Manifestation of the Trickster"

Essay 5 pages (1657 words) Sources: 4 Style: Chicago

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Manifestation of the Trickster

The general configuration of the trickster is not only complex in terms of the characteristics of the trickster and the actions and events in which the trickster is involved, but also differs from mythology to mythology. Beyond their common denominator, the fact that they break the imposed set of rulers, often playing tricks on the other characters, be they humans or gods, the tricksters can often play key roles in either helping the hero, participating in acts of creations or destructions etc.

It is in all these different perspectives that the trickster appears in "Pan's Labyrinth." First of all, the faun is the intermediary between Ophelia and the ancient Labyrinth, with all that this brings about: mystery, uncertainty, malefic characters and unexplainable events. In this quality, he is also the intermediary between the two worlds, a real world that Ophelia is part of and the mystic, fantasy world that the Labyrinth represents. The trickster in the Epic of Gilgamesh plays in a similarly tragic register, plays the same role as an intermediary between the two worlds: that of the gods and the human world. Although created by gods, Enkidu is entirely human. He will become the man who destined to save the king and his kingdom from himself.

The trickster in Guillermo del Toro's film, the faun, is ambiguous and he appears to be merciless in his way of testing the girl. Her journey depends on her alone and at the end of it she will succeed only by recognizing that the she was the hero who had to sacrifice herself in order to save the world. The king in Gilgamesh's Epic has created a huge and marvelous empire on earth. Meanwhile, he has become a danger not only to himself, but also to the people he reins over and to the kingdom as a whole. Enkidu represents the archetype of the trickster that will transcend literature over the ages. He is a better image of Gilgamesh himself, a perfect counterpart, a symbol for the man who was not yet perverted by civilization. Enkidu entered Gilgamesh's civilized world only to become the sacrificed in the fight between the supernatural creatures and the human world.

Both the Sumerian epic from ancient times and the modern film present the archetype of a trickster who is guiding the hero on his or her journey on the path of delivering the world from evil. In Pan's Labyrinth's case, the evil is represented by the authoritarian forces during the Spanish Civil War. Ophelia's new born baby brother stands for the innocence of a world before the biblical fall. The faun, the archetype of the trickster, is playing the role of the justice that is impartial and equally blind. He does not trespass his role as Ophelia's guide in the Labyrinth, he merely shows her where to step in.

Although the heroes in the two fiction works are as different as possible in appearance, they share the same destiny in as far as their journey towards self acknowledging goes. They are both helped to overcome their fears by two trickster archetypes that are equally different in appearance and origin. Enkidu is entirely created by the gods with the sole purpose of guiding king Gilgamesh on his way towards finding himself and thus getting ready to fight a greater evil, the guardian of the cedar forest, Humbaba. The faun, in Pan's Labyrinth is a fabulous creature that will not entirely reveal his positive role until the end of the story. By the end of Ophelia's second trial and her unfortunate subsequent failure (she is a mortal after all), the faun may be an evil trickster. His good intentions will only be revealed by the time Ophelia is offered the chance for her third and last trial.

The trickster is an enabler that is both capable of interfering and overtaking the role of the hero himself. In the case of Pan's Labyrinth the role of the faun is clearly that of an objective enabler that never oversteps his role. On the other hand, the audience becomes utterly aware that as soon as he overcame his role, the story would go wrong. The hero, Ophelia, would loose the capacity to convince that the end came as the result of her own capacity to overcome fears and the love of herself for a greater good. Tricksters have always appeared in stories where the two worlds, that of the supernatural and the human world have interacted and became juxtaposed at some points only to separate again towards the end, when the rays of hope shine upon the human world.

The trickster's archetype is the expression of hope for mankind through mankind. Enkidu is human and therefore a mortal. He is playing both the role of the trickster as well as that of the hero. Despite his original creation as a deliverer for the kingdom of Uruk and the king, Gilgamesh, he matches the latter in strength and has the innocence Gilgamesh must have had before he forgot how he came to create his kingdom in the first place.

The interesting part about tricksters in general is that although we live in a world that survives and prospers because it abides by the rules, they succeed precisely because they temporarily disregard the rules. The world gets stuck at some point because someone acquires power over it by carefully using these rules for the sole benefit of reigning over others. The selfish drive to acquire power and the los of a reality sense therefore are counterbalanced in fiction by the trickster. His very name shows that he is playing tricks to reach his goals. But they are usually connected with intentions of restoring justice.

If the faun never mingles with the mortal world, Enkidu loses his objectivity as soon as he befriends king Gilgamesh. He is the king's perfect counterpart and his mirror image. Once Enkidu dies as a result of the god's punishment for having killed the heavenly bull, Gilgamesh becomes obsessed with his own condition as a mortal. The trickster in the Sumerian epic is not only mortal, but he also becomes equal in role with the hero and eventually dies.

The king and his counterpart, Enkidu take turns in playing their role as heroes as well as tricksters in the Epic of Gilgamesh. They are both disobeying the rules, but only one of them is both good and evil at some point. Enkidu, the perfect archetype of the trickster, will never loose his positive features and although he sets to kill together with his friend, he will never act out of revenge or out of his own selfish will. He will intermediate between the two worlds, that of the supernatural and the human world and he will disappear from the human world as soon as he overstepped the role assigned by the gods. Both, the faun and Enkidu are responsible in front of a greater authority and while the faun never interferes in the human world, Enkidu becomes involved in the hero's life to the point where he looses himself for the sake of the hero who became his friend.

Despite Enkidu's sacrifice, the hero in the Sumerian poem is not delivered. His human condition makes him face the greatest fear of them all: his mortality. The humans seem condemned to yearn for a mortality that once acquired would become a curse.

On the one hand, the hero in the poem Gilgamesh is a representation of a classical hero: he is a man who created a kingdom and became a powerful king. Even if he takes the wrong path sometimes, he will fight the evil and succeed in most of his battles. He will also find his perfect partner, a self-image without the perverted part and… READ MORE

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