The Princess Bride-S. Morgenstern's classic tale

of true love and high adventure

By Hope RobinsonOnce upon a time came a story so full of high adventure and true

love that it became an instant classic, and won the hearts of millions. S. Morgenstern's timeless tale pits country against

country, good against evil, love against hate. From the Cliffs of Insanity through the Fire Swamp and down into the Zoo of Death, this incredible journey and brilliant tale is peppered with strange

beasties both monstrous and gentle, and memorable surprises both terrible and sublime...

THE PRINCESS BRIDE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page # Content

1. Pictures 2. Table of Contents 3. Prince Humperdinck 4. Inigo Montoya 5. Fezzik 6. Vizzini 7. Buttercup 8. Westley 9. Dread Pirate Roberts, 10. Yeste and Yellin

11. Miracle Max & Valerie 12. Domingo, the king & Queen

13. Count Rugen & Countess

14. Setting 15. Rising Action &

Conflict 16. Climax & Falling

Action 17. Author Biography 18. Author’s Other

Books 19. My Review 20. Pictures 21. Facts

Prince Humperdinck

Prince Humperdinck is the heir to the Florinese throne. He's definitely an antagonist; he's always challenging the protagonists. Humperdinck is squat, hunting-obsessed and rather ridiculous. He prefers fighting and adventure to domestic duties, and so he plots to murder his soon-to-be-wife, Buttercup; frame the Guilderians across the sea; and start a war. Prince Humperdinck, the most powerful man in what would one day become Europe, epitomizes everything crotchety, undeserved and dishonest in this story. The country of Florin is his playground, and Buttercup his disposable doll of a wife. Westley is merely an obstacle in the way, to be easily taken down- same with Fezzik and Inigo, once of course they return to the good side. While he is an exceptionally talented hunter, he uses his training for his own good: he hunts for sport within his zoo of death, the five-floor underground cavern where each level has animals more lethal than the previous, and harder to kill. He then disposes (or at least tries to) of his wife in order to amuse himself with a war. Even under Vizzini's criminal leadership, Fezzik and Inigo use their skills for arguably useful, perhaps even noble purposes, and thus this story is their adventure as it seeps under and around Humperdinck's reign. His character in the film is played by Chris Sarandon.

Inigo MontoyaThe Spanish Swordsman

This phrase that Inigo practices repeatedly for his ultimate encounter with Count Rugen completely sums up his motivation throughout the story. We learn in a flashback to his childhood that he had adored his father, a great swordmaker, who had created as his 'magnum opus' a glittering sword for the six- fingered count. The Count returned, was displeased with the product and refused to pay the price he had originally offered, and then in a fit of anger he killed Inigo's father, shattering young Inigo's life. Inigo spends the rest of his childhood and young adulthood mastering the sword, and ultimately becomes a wizard, the highest ranked swordsman in the world. He has spent his life learning the sword in order to avenge his father's death at the hands of Count Rugen. Having achieved this and still not found the Count, he lapsed into depression and alcoholism, and came out of it only when Vizzini recruited him to assist in his criminal organization. He fears losing his purpose again, and therefore he remains faithfully with Vizzini. He's Vizzini's man of steel. He's extremely skilled, dangerous, but an inherently good and loyal man, and he loves sword fighting, brandy and Fezzik. His character in the film is played by Mandy Pantinkin.

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya; you killed my father; prepare to die."

FezzikFezzik is the timid, ugly, large-hearted and obedient giant who accompanies Vizzini. Fezzik loves rhymes and his friend Inigo, and he is excellent at lifting heavy things. Vizzini uses Fezzik, the strongest man alive, for criminal purposes. As an especially large child in Turkey, his parents took him to fight against champions, first locally, then all over the continent. Fezzik hated the sport of fighting but didn't want to lose his parents' affection by refusing. As a matter of fact, it is Fezzik's mother who, when Fezzik protests that fighting will hurt, says the famous words: "Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something." Fezzik, although excellent at following instructions, is very bad at remembering them, so Inigo often makes up rhymes that he can repeat to keep Vizzini's rules straight. He is fretful, fair, loyal to Inigo, and an excellent follower, since we are told many times that his only drive in life is not to be left alone.  His character in the film is played by Andre the Giant.

VIZZINIVizzini is a Sicilian man of genius. Vizzini is the brains behind the trio (himself, Fezzik and Inigo) that was hired by Prince Humperdinck to kidnap and murder Buttercup. He is smug, ruthless, and killed quickly in a battle of wits against Westley. In the film, his character is played by Wallace Shawn.

BUTTERCUPButtercup is the most beautiful woman in the world and the heroine of this story. Buttercup loves Westley and her horse, appropriately named Horse. She is feisty and tomboyish. Buttercup's motivation, before she falls in love with Westley and then after she believes Westley dead, is virtually nil. She moves complacently through her days, certain that she will never feel passion for anything or anyone again, but willing to go through the routines and rituals involved in becoming queen. The greatest factor in her decisions is a simple preference of life over death—she marries Humperdinck instead of opting for death, and she jumps into the shark-infested water rather than have her throat slit by Vizzini. Once she loses Westley after the Fire Swamp, she spends the rest of the story desperately trying to bring him back. In her essence, Buttercup is a common girl who also happens to be bold, passionate, and uncommonly beautiful, and in the end it is her beauty that moves the men who move the plot, not her wits or courage. The Buttercup in the book is less guarded, less rational, and more extreme but also charming. Her sense of humour is odd, rather sarcastic, though not cynical. Her character in the film was played by Robin Wright.

WestleyWestley is Buttercup's beloved Farm Boy. Westley is a brave, multi-talented man who leaves to seek his fortune, is reportedly murdered by the Dread Pirate Roberts, and returns, costumed as the Man in Black, to rescue Buttercup from everything that threatens her. Westley is motivated entirely by his love for Buttercup. He explains to her in chapter one that everything he does, he does to please her: "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." Throughout the story, his love-directed motivation encompasses many other ends, and he learns everything the world can teach him, with the sole hope that it might one day prove useful in reclaiming his beloved. Thus, after his tryst with the Dread Pirate Roberts, he returns to Florin about to do everything with a godlike perfection. He can duel better than Inigo. He can wrestle better than Fezzik. He can reason better than Vizzini. He can live through Count Rugen's death machine. He can intimidate the over-confident Prince Humperdinck. In short, he is the ideal man, just as Buttercup is the ideal woman, despite their imperfections.

The Dread Pirate Roberts, Yeste, & Yellin

YESTE- Madrid's most famous sword-maker, for whom Inigo's father, Domingo Montoya, made back-order swords.

D.P.R.- The most feared pirate name on the seas. Dread Pirate Roberts captured Westley, and passed the name onto him.

YELLIN-  The Chief of all Enforcement in Florin City. Along with Count Rugen, Yellin is Humperdinck's only confidante. He’s rather dim-witted, but is loyal to the death.

Miracle Max & ValerieMiracle Max -  Once the king's leading miracle man, but Humperdinck fired him and so he retired. However, Max still knows enough magic to resurrect Westley from the dead. In the film his character is played by Billy Crystal.Valerie -  Miracle Max's wife. Valerie stands in as his witch, since all miracle men must have their own witches. Her character in the film is played by Carol Kane.

Domingo Montoya, King

Lotharon & Queen Bella

Domingo Montoya -  Inigo Montoya's father. Domingo was a great sword-maker who was killed ruthlessly by Count Rugen because he wouldn’t sell his extraordinary six-fingered sword for half the price.

King Lotharon -  The King of Florin, and Humperdinck's father. King Lotharon, by the time of the story, is quite old, deaf, and difficult to understand.

Queen Bella -  The Queen of Florin and Humperdinck's stepmother. A fussy, prissy, snobby lady with a hat fetish.

Count Rugen & his CountessCount Tyrone Rugen  -  Prince Humperdinck's right-hand man. He’s innately evil, and he loves to spend most of his time thinking up new ways in which to torture his enemies. Count Rugen has six fingers on his right hand. He slaughtered Inigo's father, and in the end is slain by Inigo. He has an extra finger, and for that he needed a six-fingered sword.The Countess -  The Count's wife. The countess is the most fashionable woman in what would become Europe. Her attentiveness to Westley stirs envy in Buttercup.

SettingSettingSetting (time): An undefined time, before Europe and after blue jeans.Setting (place); the fictional countries of Florin and Guilder. In Florin, the Cliffs of Insanity, the Fire Swamp, the Florin Sea, the Zoo of Death, the Florinese palace, and Buttercup’s family’s country farm. Florin is a vast, mountainous, beautiful country with a flourishing agriculture.The social conditions: At the time of the novel, the coronation of Prince Humperdinck in place of his elderly father King Lotharon is fast approaching. It’s also almost the country’s 500th anniversary, so the atmosphere is joyous and full of excitement for the celebrations to come. Not many know of Prince Humperdinck’s evil plans for when he becomes King: to murder his wife-to-be (Buttercup) and blame it on the neighbouring country of Guilder in order to start a war. The relationship between the two countries in tense: over the past centuries, there has been many wars between them, some started over less than a murder.

Rising Action & ConflictRising action · The rising action begins rather early in the story, as soon as 

Buttercup is kidnapped and we begin to suspect that the man in black is no ordinary criminal figure. From this point forward, a series of unimaginable, insurmountable obstacles arise, and the tension rises as the man in black, soon unveiled as Westley, leaps over them with flying colors in his feat to rescue Buttercup.

major conflict · The major conflict is the process by which Buttercup and Westley reunite in the necessarily completion of the world's greatest story of true love.

& Falling ActionClimax · The  climax  takes  place  when Westley  is  pronounced  dead  at  the  end  of chapter six. At this moment, and only for a moment, did I believe that the ending of the  story may  not  be  a  romantic  one. My  alarm was  compounded when William Goldman  interrupted  the  book  and  recounted  how  his  father  explained  while reading the book aloud that Westley is, actually, killed by Humperdinck. We know, by  this  point,  that  Westley  can  overcome  the  strongest  strength  (Fezzik),  the steadiest  steel  (Inigo),  the  craftiest  logic  and  wit  (Vizzini)  and  the  best-trained hunter (Humperdinck), all in the name of love. But until this point I did not suspend my belief to think that love could perhaps overcome death.

Falling action · After Westley  is pronounced dead, the action is  still  tense  and  potent  as  Inigo,  Fezzik  and  the  cadaverous Westley  enter  Humperdinck's  castle  to  stop  the  wedding. Nothing  is  restful, although by this time we are fairly certain that  everything  will  work  out  happily  in  the  end,  or  else William Goldman would not  have  taken us  this  far.  There  is no full release from the climax in this story. William Goldman summarizes the end, when Westley and Buttercup are finally free  and  reunited,  as  a  series  of  disasters  ending  perhaps happily, perhaps not.

CLIMAX

Author BiographyWilliam Goldman (born August 12, 1931) is an American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was born in Highland Park, Illinois and obtained a BA degree at Oberlin College, 1952 and an MA degree at Columbia University, 1956. He served in the US Army from 1952- 1954. He had published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before going to Hollywood to write screenplays, including several based on his novels. In the 1980s he wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood (in one of these he remarked that in Hollywood, nobody knows anything), and wrote more novels. His re-entry to the screen was marked by his adapting his novel The Princess Bride into screenwriting. He is often called in as an uncredited script doctor on troubled projects. Simon Morgenstern is a pseudonym, a narrative device invented by him to add another layer to his work, The Princess Bride. Goldman claims that S. Morgenstern is the original Florinese author of The Princess Bride, while he credits himself as the abridger who's bringing the classic to an American audience. Goldman has also written The Silent Gondoliers under Morgenstern's name. He has won two Academy Awards: an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men. He married Ilene Jones: they were divorced in 1991. Contrary to his fictionalized biography in The Princess Bride, he has two daughters and no sons.

http://www.twyman-whitney.com/film/celluloid_profiles/goldman.html

Additional Information on William Goldman:

http://www.filmmakers.com/artists/williamgoldman/biography/index.htm

His Books

•Your Turn to Curtsy, My Turn to Bow(1958)•Soldier in the Rain (1963)•No Way to Treat A Lady (1964)•The Thing of It Is... (1967)•Boys and Girls Together (1969)•Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)•The Temple of Gold (1970)•Father's Day (1971)•The Princess Bride (1973)•Wigger (1974)•Marathon Man (1974)•The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)•Magic (1976)•Tinsel (1979)•Control (1982)•The Silent Gondoliers (1983) (writing as S Morgenstern)•The Color of Light (1984)•Edged Weapons (1985)•Brothers (1986)

My Review The Princess Bride is a true fantasy classic. William Goldman describes it as a "good parts version" of "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure." Morgenstern's ‘original’ was filled with details of Florinese history and court etiquette. It’s truly a story that has everything: "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.” I thought the movie version of The Princess Bride was great, filled with witty pokes at fantasy conventions, snappy dialogue, and clever lines. It was also wrapped in a saccharine story about a sick boy who has the story of The Princess Bride read to him by his obnoxiously affectionate grandfather, whom the young boy grows to love by the end of the movie. In the novel, the story of The Princess Bride is wrapped in an altogether different, not-so-saccharine story. And it is this story that elevates the charming tale of The Princess Bride from a clever riff on fantasy clichés to a far more meaningful and ultimately moving book. At the same time, it is one of the funniest, most original, but moving books I have ever read. It is beautifully written, and satires the ridiculousness of fairytales with such hilarious accuracy you can’t help but cry from laughter. What makes The Princess Bride so moving is that, by the end, you realize that the charming story of Westley and Buttercup is really nothing more than a long lament for lost youth and lost idealism. Since I read a lot of fantasy, the message hit me especially hard. It is a spectacular story that should absolutely be read by everyone at some point in life.

PICTURES

FactsGenre: a comedy/adventure, and also falls into and satires fantasy, romance and science-fiction

Time and place written: 1973, USA

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Protagonist · The omniscient narrator (the author) follows the pasts and present of each of the main characters, namely Buttercup, Westley, Inigo, Fezzik and Prince Humperdinck, but the thread tying all of the adventures together is

Buttercup, the Princess Bride herself.

It is presented as if it were an abridgment of a work by S. Morgenstern, and Goldman's 'commentary' asides are constant

throughout.

The epilogue to some later editions of the novel (notably the 25th anniversary edition from ‘98) mentions a sequel, Buttercup's Baby, that was ‘having trouble getting published because of legal difficulties with S.

Morgenstern's estate’. This sequel seems to be just as fictional as S. Morgenstern's unabridged edition, though later editions actually reprint

Goldman's "sample chapter".

THE END!

“Since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.”