As the world around Ofelia is collapsing into chaos as the rebels encroach on the farmhouse the established power figures in the film begin to be overrun and displaced from their position of control. The laws and rules that governed the land under the Spanish government dramatically become usurped as the spies within the farmhouse and the rebel fighters collaborate and chip away at Vidal and his men. The reality of Ofelia's world is no longer a place of rules and chaos becomes the primary force in this realm.
The supernatural events increase in frequency and intensity as the order in real world crumbles. This dynamic has several subtle aspects that can be explored. When looking at Pan's Labyrinth through the lens of psychology, this may be Ofelia's reaction to the struggle as she rejects reality and substitutes her own. Children as sensitive to insecure environments and will create illusions to soften the blow of the true struggle that surrounds them each day. Coupled with children's wild imagination, that has not yet been displaced by social values and education, the illusions can take on highly detailed roles in the arena of her mind.
Dissociative behavior of this kind is known in the medical community to aid the mind during periods of extended trauma. The Spanish civil war, and any other conflict of that nature, can push the mind of a child to the edge of reason. The mythological incarnations of the Fawn, the fairies, and the baby-eating monster are devices that Ofelia has created to cut off the real world and substitute her own self-created stimulus.
The mythological world and the real world that is presented in Pan's Labyrinth are placed in stark contrast against each other. The mythological world follows a strict set of rules and behaves in a predictable fashion. Ofelia is commanded by the Fawn to complete a set of tasks so that she can return to her proper place as princess of the underworld. As she completes the tasks, one by one, there is no trickery or deception involved. Since the tasks are straightforward they adhere to a set of rules and do not allow for chaos.
The real world, however, does not behave this way. The war is chaotic and the rebels use chaos as weapon that eventually leads to the killing of Vidal and the capture of the farmhouse. Vidal represents order, as throughout the film he is constantly shown with a watch or other images that reference time. Time is a calculated and independent property of the real world. Vidal is killed and the watch that he carries eventually breaks, despite his constant efforts at trying to fix it. Magic is a source of order and reality is a source of entropy.
Chaos and order, reason and imagination, reality and myth, Ofelia, the innocent contrasted with Vidal, and the baby-eating monster. These pairs play to the duality of human nature. Pan's Labyrinth is a modern fairy tale with all the dark and mature aspects of an film a film that explores the internal struggle of the human condition.
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