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The Princess Bride Characters and Analysis
The Princess Bride Characters and Analysis
Essay on archetypes
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The Princess Bride is a cliche love story movie about two lovers and their tale that tells how they became separated and found each other again. It tells this story using archetypes all throughout the movie. One of the most important of the archetypes being the magic weapon. Overcoming obstacles and and achieving goals becomes much easier with the help of a magic weapon. In The Princess Bride, the archetype of the magic weapon takes form metaphorically to aid Westley in his rescue of Buttercup. For example, Westley knew how to avoid the dangers of the Fire Swamp and could fight off giant rats. This scene takes place after Westley realizes that Buttercup still loves him and he reveals himself to her, together, they then make their escape
In Princess Bride, Westley's quest is to return to his true love, Buttercup, whom he has loved since a young worker on her family's farm. With no money to marry, Westley decides to strike out for his fortune but is taken prisoner; he is mistakenly reported as dead to Buttercup, who is promised to Prince Humperdink as his bride. In his quest, Westley must first survive being taken prisoner by the Dread Pirate Roberts which he is able to do by showing no fear when Roberts announces daily "Tomorrow you will die" (Princess Bride n.p.). Roberts in fact is so impressed that he retires and names Westley as his successor. Upon
In The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Buttercup’s love, Westley, leaves for America as a young man in search of quick money to start a new life with Buttercup. However, Westley’s journey gets interrupted by pirates, and Buttercup is left to believe Westley is dead. Three years later, Buttercup is kidnapped, and then taken from those captors by another mysterious captor. She finds an opening to escape from him, and unknowingly shoves her long-lost lover down a ravine. Once she realizes who he is, she falls after him, unfazed by the danger she faces. Fearlessly, she descends, wanting only to reach Westley. Goldman even states how Buttercup would have risked anything to be reunited with Westley. By showing Buttercup's intent to be with Westley no matter the obstacle, William Goldman illustrates how love trumps fear. Eventually, Westley and Buttercup are able to escape their foes and be together again.
The Princess Bride’s humorous take on satire. In The Princess Bride, a novel by William Goldman, satire is used to showcase a character’s actions and personalities whilst bringing out a fairy tale’s flaws. The Princess Bride is a satire because it makes fun of the fact that a fairy tale portrays its characters with only one purpose. It does this by making changes to its characters halfway through the story and then building on that change. The fact that the novel is a satire matters because whether the reader thinks the story is a satire or fairy tale can change the reader’s perspective on a specific point in the story. This perspective determines if the reader should interpret part of the story literally or figuratively, which can change the
Wesley's is able to save her from the kidnappers and shows Buttercup the grave brave deeds that he is willing to do for her such as taking her through the fire swamp, saving her life from quicksand and then finally defeating a giant rat. Once again there is another aspect where their true love is tested when Buttercup knows that wesley will come and save her at any cost even though she finds out that Prince Humperdinck never sent though ships. In the end the Princess Bride is a story of a loving relationship between two people and how it can be trumphant over anything
As she grows into a princess, she still has these troubles. It was only after she had haunting dreams about leaving her real love that she shaped up. She showed perseverance in believing that Westley would come to save her. She waited until the last moments of the wedding for Westley to save her. Princess Buttercup had stayed loyal to Westley by not loving anyone but him. She comes in clutch by being brave and helping Inigo, Fezzik, Westley, and her escape. It takes a lot of bravery to stand up to an army and lead them astray. In The Princess Bride, she decided that she was going to kill herself to stay true to Westley. That takes bravery and shows her great loyalty. I think that Buttercup is a Byronic hero. She is described as beautiful, flawed, and does things based on what benefits her, therefore she fits the description of a Byronic
In William Goldman's The Princess Bride, a strong theme is conveyed throughout the novel. With sacrifice, true love can overcome all, is a strong theme present in the book. The first occurrence displaying this theme is when Westley saves Buttercup from Vizzini, Ingio, and Fezzik. Westley shows true dedication when he states, "'Has it occurred to you that I have gone to great effort and expense, as well as personal sacrifice, to reach this point'" (Goldman 152). At this point in the novel, Westley has already defeated one of the greatest fencers, survived a substantial giant, and is moments away from tricking an intelligent mind into a fatal mistake. Westley putting his life on the line shows that he would do anything out of his love for Buttercup.
Gender roles. The specific roles assigned to genders by a patriarchal society have evolved over time; however, for a long period of time, women have been assigned the role as a helpless, homebound nurturer by men: “women had many domestic responsibilities, including caring for children, preparing food, and tending livestock” (Bovie n.p.). Shown repeatedly through Buttercup, her role as a female character was defined by the role assigned to her. The damsel in distress archetype, explicitly shown throughout The Princess Bride, illuminates the role of woman that is conceived by men in the film which proves that the film should be considered art.
Cinderella is not the same happy ending or everyone lives happy ever after type of story around the world. One thing that will always be in a Cinderella story is the evil step-mother. However, there are very different type of endings in both archetypes of Cinderella. The ideas of a fairy god mother in both cultures is every interesting, too. There are many similarities in the Vietnam and French archetypes about Cinderella, such as the evil step-mother, but also differences like what happens at the end of the story or how the fairy god mothers both help in different ways.
The Hero Journey undergoes different points in someone’s life. In 1949 a man named Joseph Campbell shared Mythic and Archetypal principals with the world. Christopher Vogler fulfilled all of the Hero Journey steps. In the Princess Bride film directed by Robert Reiner is based on the book written by William Goldman. In the film Westley the farm boy leaves the farm, and goes on an adventure to provide for his true love. Westley is a Campbellion a Hero because the story has Mythic and Archetypal principals and follows most of the twelve stages of the Hero Journey.Westley begins his Hero Journey with a call to adventure out of his ordinary world.Westley is a farm boy, who works for a beautiful girl named Buttercup. The farm is filled with animals, and orders from Buttercup. The only wodds Westley says is “As you wish” (Princess Bride). Westley shows that he loves Buttercup but does not want to live on the farm anymore so that he can get a better life for the both of them. When Buttercup realizes she truly loves Westley, and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. Buttercup would tell Westley to do things just so he could say the magic words. “ Farm boy fetch me that pitcher” ( Princess Bride). This shows that Butercup loved Westley even though she did not show it, and this would send him on his adventure. Tom Hutchsion expressed in his article that “ There is a call to a new experience. This might appear like good news or bad news” (Hutchsion, Tom). Westley does not refuse the call because he wants to provide a better life for Buttercup. Westley entered his special world by getting on the ship, and starting his new life. While on the ship Dread Pirate Roberts keeps Westley on the ship as a passenger, and trains him, and he becom...
Bettelheim, Bruno. ""Cinderella" A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipial Conflicts." Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. 1976. 279-282.
Satire criticises and makes fun of the norms of human society. It adds an intellectual humour along with the archetypes that is present in the story. In The Princess Bride, by William Goldman, satire is in a wide variety of parts in the story from the communication between others to the character themselves including the Spaniard, Inigo Montoya. The author portrays Inigo as a Spaniard who becomes a fencer to seek revenge on the six-fingered man for the murder of his father, Domingo Montoya and he becomes a henchman to the criminal Vizzini. He is a very caring man to people he cares about, but he can only act on vengeance since he truly loves his father. With his attention only on reprisal, it can blind him from achieving the results he wants and that can significantly affect his personality as he is driven by it. When he finds the six-fingered man, he prepares after many years of training with famous fencers and even has a saying that he plants in his brain so that it is the driven force of vengeance. He is the ‘evil figure with an ultimately good heart’ archetype as he is a part of Vizzini’s group with Fezzik, but he has a change in heart that he needs Westley’s help to storm the castle. Although Inigo is a prestigious fencer who only cares about revenge, the author plays with satirical devices that portray the faults and weaknesses of his characteristics while maintaining his status as the best swordsman in his generation.
Take Cinderella, for example. She represents the paragon of a princess, both real and animated. Her luxurious blue gown, large blue eyes with tiny feet and a slim waist creates a delicate image. And while Cinderella is thoughtful and hardworking, most people remember her for her glass slippers and fairy godmother (Orenstein). On the other hand, Mulan’s brave actions in protecting her country do not represent the typical portrayal of a weak and composed princess. Specifically, when meeting with the matchmaker, Mulan disliked dressing up, powdering her face, and acting prim and proper; instead, Mulan wore armor and carried a sword. (Coats) This brave character falls nowhere into the delicate image of a princess that Disney uses with countless other princesses such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Ariel. Princesses are not determined by their actions, but rather represented by their beauty and image; thus, because Mulan is not the most proper or girly, she does not relate with the dainty image of real Disney
The Princess Bride’s humorous take on satire. In The Princess Bride, a novel by William Goldman, satire is used to showcase a character’s actions and personalities whilst bringing out a fairytales flaws. The Princess Bride is a satire because it makes fun of the fact that a fairy tale portrays its characters with only one purpose. It does this by making changes to its characters halfway through the story and building on that change. The fact that the novel is a satire matters because whether the reader thinks the story is a satire or fairy tale can change their perspective on a specific point in the story. This perspective determines if the reader should interpret part of
In Snow, Glass, Apples the Princess is rather the antagonist. From the first appearance of the Princess, we learn that she is rather pale and has a black hair and has lips red as blood. She has sharp teeth. Her characteristics here is depicted as a scary character. The mood becomes dark and frightening as she enters in the piece. She goes to the Queen’s room
...oited by the royalty, those concepts did not exist yet. By the time Disney got around to it the tide of morals meant that girls must be presented as lady’s none of the sexual desire stuff of the more ancient versions. The story had to revolve around the selfless prince rescuing his bride to be all good Christian values. However even with those changes the story maintained things that survived the course of history. The damsel who needs to be saved and the role of Man saving the women.