Why is it hard to love another? When true love, is at stake anyone would do anything to continue it or demolish it. The Princess Bride is a fictional tale and is centered on the love of a beautiful women and a skillful man of the name man in black. They vow to themselves that they would never love another. But is it easy to keep your word in certain situations? The mythical stories characters endure things that human beings shouldn’t go through. Some characters overcome deaths while others couldn’t. The Princess Bride is a wonderful and aggressive book that consists of love, adventure, deaths, near death experiences, revenge, and more.
In The Princess Bride there are two main characters (in my opinion) and a few of major characters. The main characters in the story are Buttercup and The Man in Black also known as Westley. Without these two love birds the story of The Princess Bride or as I like to call it “Another Romeo & Juliet with A Mature Twist” wouldn’t prevail. Westley is the man that Buttercup is “head over heels” for and who she is willing to give up her life just to not love another. Eventually she fails to keep her word, and plans to marry Prince Humperdinck, not knowing that her death is around the corner.
Buttercup is a princess and she’s being forced to potentially love someone that she doesn’t love. One day Buttercup had a dream, which I would say was a nightmare and also a representation of what Buttercup is going through and who she actually is. Buttercup’s nightmare was about her and her baby. In the nightmare she was breastfeeding the baby, while breastfeeding the baby the baby had said that the milk was sour. Once Buttercup was told that she switched breasts, and once again she was told that the milk was sour.
No, this is sour too,” and Buttercup said, “ I don’t know what to do” and the baby said, “ You always know what to do, you always know exactly what to do, you always do exactly what’s right for you, and the rest of the world can go hang,” and Buttercup said, “ You mean Westley” and the baby said, “ Of course I mean Westley,” (Goldman 209) The baby was trying to say that by committing to marrying Prince Humperdinck, that Buttercup betrayed Westley. The baby eventually ended up turning into dust in Buttercups hands because Buttercups milk had no love. Her development through the story I wouldn’t consider a development.
What she did to overcome all the obstacles that came her way is fairly evident. From the moment she fell in love with Westley till the moment she found out he was “dead” her development was nil. She maneuvered through her day, unbothered, because she was certain the she wouldn’t love anyone anymore. Once she is told that Westley is dead she spends the rest of the story, searching for Westley. Why is Westley the guy she loves? I don’t know, but let’s get to know him a wee bit more. Westley is the guy that you wouldn’t want to mess with and who everyone is envious of, especially Prince Humperdinck.
Westley is being “tracked down” by Prince Humperdinck, because Prince Humperdinck wants to salvage the fifth level of the zoo of death just for Westley. Only because if the Prince wants to be the best he has to fight the finest. Westley was also put on Count Rugen’s death machine which literally vacuums the life out of you, year by year. Westley’s development in the story is centered on Buttercup and getting her back. In chapter one he did explain to her that everything he does, he does it in hopes to please Buttercup. “I have taught myself languages because of you.
I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body. “(Goldman 54) Westley is the ideal man, he could intimidate Prince Humperdinck, his sword skills are better than Inigo’s, he could fight better than Fezzik and he could reason better than Vizzini. Even though Buttercup and Westley are a large scale part of the story, some other characters which I would consider the major characters are also just as important. They are Inigo Montoya, Fezzik, Prince Humperdinck and Vizzini. Let’s start with the brute of Prince Humperdinck, to keep it nice let’s just say that he’s a very idiotic, spoiled, and narcissistic brat.
I found it rude that he laughed at a bald princess and refused to marry her because of her physical appearance. “I’m not marrying any bald princess, and that’s that! ”(Goldman 75). To even top that, he’s planning to kill Buttercup and blame it on the country of Guilder just to start a war for his own adolescent entertainment. Prince Humperdinck also has this dungeon type area that he calls the zoo of death, which consist of five levels which each contain something that is to be hunted, which each increasing level the category that the animal belonged in changed. On the first level, he put enemies of speed: wild dogs, cheetahs, hummingbirds.
On the second level belonged the enemies of strength: anacondas and rhinos and crocodiles of over twenty feet. The third level was for poisoners: spitting cobras, jumping spiders, death bats galore. The fourth level was the kingdom of the most dangerous, the enemies of fear: the shrieking tarantula (the only spider capable of sound), the blood eagle (the only bird that thrived on human flesh), plus, in its own black pool, the sucking squid. ” (Goldman 65) He built the Zoo of Death underground to keep him out of trouble.
Prince Humperdinck was also the one who threatened to kill Buttercup if she didn’t marry him, and Buttercup ended up saying to kill her because she was never going to stop loving Westley. In connection, with Prince Humperdinck he hired three very skillful fighters to kidnap Buttercup and exterminate her. They are Inigo Montoya, Fezzik, and Vizzini. Staring with Fezzik who is also known as the giant of the book (in the movie Andre the Giant played his role) and he also has “super strength” which in other words means that he was tremendously strong.
Fezzik lived in Turkey and since he was extraordinarily big, his parents put him in fighting. He fought champions locally, then all over countries. He was scared of refusing the sport of fighting in fear that he would lose his parents affection. Fezzik is used by Vizzini for only criminal purposes. Next, we have Vizzini. He is a ruthless Sicilian and he was the one who could “read minds” which meant he knew what others thought. I took it as not that he could read minds (as in being able to go into someone’s brain and pinpoint every detail) but as if he could read people easily as if he had a master degree in phycology.
Unfortunately, he was quickly killed in a battle against Westley. Lastly, we have Inigo Montoya. “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya; you killed my father; prepare to die. ”(Goldman 307). Since the death of his father, Inigo has been practicing that saying throughout the book. Inigo’s main motivation throughout the book is finding the six fingered man also known as Count Rugen. He wants to find him because the six fingered man killed his father, so Inigo wants to put Count Rugen through the same irritation that he made his father suffer through.
In a flashback we learned, that Inigo adored his father as a child. His father was a master sword maker and when he made a sword for the six fingered man; everything after that went downhill. The Count was displeased and didn’t want to pay full price for the sword, so out of anger he killed Inigo’s father. When Inigo’s father took his last breath, Inigo’s world just pulverized. Even though the death of his father did hit him hard, he did spend the rest of his childhood and young adulthood mastering the sword, he becomes a wizard and was ranked the best sword fighter in the world.
Even with accomplishing that he still didn’t find his father’s killer so he fell into depression and alcohol. He ended up recovering after Vizzini took him into his criminal adventure. The sojourn that I went through in reading this book was superlative for me. Before I was told that it was like Romeo and Juliet, I thought I would resent this book. When I started reading, it was so boring so I thought that I was right but when I got past the rocky start, the book captured my attention. But even with the shaky start personally, I enjoyed the book.
I would gladly say that this book gave me a good impression and I would recommend for anyone that’s into romance and action combined to make a dramatic novel. The time honored tale of The Princess Bride gave off good morals that could be useful for anyone to attain in their brain for future references. One part that I personally enjoyed in the book is how William Goldman made it seem like S. Morgenstern was actually real, when in reality he was just a symbol of imagination. It was very creative for William Goldman to say that he was just shortening “the classic tale of true love and high adventure”.
I also found it very interesting how William Goldman would transition from his father reading the book to his son and back to the story. Through all the tough obstacles that had to be overcome by all of the major characters, they showed that if you have a soft spot for something fight for it and to ignore the ones who say “If you love something let it go”. If Buttercup would have let go of Westley would he have returned? From Vizzini trying to organize everything to Westley’s near death experience, the readers are taught not to take life for granted.
All of the things that happened throughout the story and major plot elements add to the identity of the book because they all showed that, in life you’re going to commit actions that are going to affect your life tremendously. Why is it hard to love another? When true love, is at stake anyone would do anything to continue it or demolish it. Buttercup and all of the other characters had to face a lot of challenges and which each on challenge they matured and developed throughout the novel. As a person living in a cruel world, I’ve learned a lot about actual life from a make-believe folk tale.