The Princess Bride Symbolism

The Princess Bride is a fiction within a fiction, toying with the levels of reality. To accomplish the ingenious insanity that is The Princess Bride, author, William Goldman, brought together a variety of variables. The book is literally layers of information to analyze. Everything is questionable and made to leave you in controversy. Though the book had many things that make it an outstanding piece, from Goldman's interruptions to its unique beginning, the thing that plays the biggest part is Goldman's use of symbolism. Every aspect of the book seems to stem from somewhere or have some deeper meaning. This could just be our own imaginations or Goldman's intent, but one thing is for sure- Goldman wrote the book to force our imaginations to take over and think for themselves in this fictional fairytale where everything you read is false.

The first and most obvious uses of symbolism in The Princess Bride is Goldman's interruptions. He begins the story telling us the background of the book we are reading. That it is in fact not his book, but a historical textbook of sorts, full of real events that he has made a fairytale out of. Goldman tells us a rundown of why he's re-writing The Princess Bride. His reason being to try to make a fairytale and edit out all the boring history so he could have the story he once heard as a child. Throughout Goldman's adaptation of S. Morganstern's The Princess Bride, he adds in his own commentary, as if the author is reading along with us telling us his thoughts. He tells us why he edited the book in certain ways, and at some more confusing parts, explains the situations to us. These interruptions are symbolism for the author's freedom. Setting up the story as an adaptation of S. Morganster...

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...ions he tells us his own theory for the ending of the story. Goldman gives us a short run down, a few options that could happen to once again get our imaginations moving. He doesn't exactly leave us wanting but imagining, creating stories of our own- forcing our imaginations to do some work rather than have the story do all of the work for you.

Goldman's use of symbolism is ingenious and mad all at once. Reading the book is like going on a rollercoaster you're not completely sure is safe. The symbolism from the interruptions keep you completely grounded while his off the mark characters suck you in to your own imagination. Forcing us all to think is a unique take by author standards considering most authors try to make the reader forget about reality and keep us all in a sort of trance. Goldman does just the opposite and its all fueled by our own creation.