Although some people view the ending of this story with the impression that the underworld is real (because, why not? anything can happen in fantasy), for once I have to depart from my ways of embracing the impossible and not accept that such a world actually existed for Ofelia. Rather, it was a fantastical world she imagined for herself as a way to seek escape from the political and personal turmoil around her.
I believe the film itself is structured to support my opinion. Ofelia's fantasies are obviously, just that, dreams and her imagination; nothing in them actually affects the real world, nor does anyone ever actually see the fairies and faun the she continuously seems to encounter. Given the fact that she constantly carries with her stacks of fantasy books, we can assume rationally, not unlike the adults in the movie, that such things have gone to her head.
We can even draw the comparison to Ofelia's namesake, the insane Ophelia from Hamlet who commits suicide. Ofelia's fantasies are a combination of her mad escape from reality and a rebellion and refusal to live in the Captain's world. However, such imaginations, although they resulted in her death, nevertheless were still able to free her. No longer would she be in such a world of turmoil and suffering; she may not have gone to underworld from her fantasies, but we can all agree she at least went to some form of heaven or Utopia that reunited her with her mother and father in a true symbolization of liberation.
Still though, despite all of this, it's fun to believe that such a fantasy land actually existed...wistful thinking, I suppose
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