Theme Of Clothing In The Princess Bride

The clothing in which a character is dressed can tell so much story without having to say a word. The use of clothing and the colour of which in The Princess Bride (Robb Reiner, 1987), is indicative of each character’s motivations as well as alludes to the connection between them and their environments throughout the course of the film. The screenplay for The Princess Bride was written by William Goldman, who also wrote the book that provided the source material for the film. The fantastical mix between action and romance that is shown in The Princess Bride story, translates almost perfectly into a visual medium, despite the box office bumps along the way. Phyllis Dalton’s costume design mixed with Reiner’s directing, and Goldman’s screenplay,

was the perfect mixture for pulling an audience into the character’s world. Rich colours and beautiful backdrops are almost a character in themselves just as the actual people that occupy those spaces.
The first time the audience sees Princess Buttercup, they are lead to believe that she is not a person of high social standing. Her plain cotton clothing, and the farm setting she inhabits, speak to the simple lifestyle she lives day to day. Wesley in this scene is much the same. Plain clothing that is normally attributed to common folk; poor people, below royal status. The opening scene is a montage of supposed days or weeks that go by in which Buttercup slowly realises that Westley loves her, and she reciprocates those feelings. Through a mash-up of close ups and medium shots, the audience sees the love in both of their eyes, and the apparent realisation of Buttercup’s love in her own over time. Their classic fairy tale kiss—which would normally happen at the end of a love story—is only back lit by a red and orange light, meant to resemble the sunset. As with every scene that both characters are in, their theme is a beautiful acoustic song playing in the background. The theme of their relationship with fairy tales and storybooks, as the song so aptly states with lyrics during the end credits. This whole opening sequence establishes what Buttercups hopes truly are throughout the course of the film. She wants to be in love and have a simple life with Wesley. These hopes are obviously dashed away when he is killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. All of this action of course, happen off-screen.
Over the course of the story, Buttercup’s intentions do not change.

Even when she believes that Wesley is dead, she is set on loving only him for the rest of her life. Humperdinck’s proposal obviously comes with an unspoken threat of death, for there would be no other reason for Buttercup to accept the idea so readily. The light pink and gold shade of the dress we see her in at the marriage announcement hints at her close relationship with the royal family. While still keeping her innocence in some ways, the lighter shade of what is really just red, bonds her with the people standing at the tower above the crowd. The iconic red tunic dress that Buttercup wears for a lot of the story is the exact same shade the prince is wearing in the story before. This allows the audience to make the connection when they see the panning shot of her making her way outside of the main city. As the wedding between Buttercup and Humperdinck gets closer to happening, Buttercup’s clothing changes drastically. Alone, she wears her flowing tunic dress, that while red, allows her room to move. Once she is back in the castle, she wears lots of cooler shades. Blues and creams make up a majority of her wardrobe, right up until we see her in the final dress; her wedding dress. Constantly mixing together the royal shades with whites and creams symbolises her innocence despite being pulled into the world of the evil royal family. While wearing the red dress she is the object of desire for all of the men

in one way or another. Wesley wants to love her, while Humperdinck has hired Vizzini and his men to kill her during her ride. Once Humperdinck has her, she doesn’t need the red any longer. She’s become and object of the Prince’s, despite her many protests.
Humperdinck, being one of the main characters, and arguably the main villain of the piece, is obviously the member of the Royal family that the audience and other characters interact with the most.

The medium shot used to first show the Royal family is even further enforced by the trumpeting fanfare that is taking place off-screen, but is still diegetic as he stops the music with just a wave of his hand. Humperdinck and the rest of his family all dress in the same four colours through the film. Red, blue, yellow, and a gray-ish purple are colours continuously seen in the story. Different variations of this same colour scheme are used for fabric on flags, clothing the royal family, and people that work in the castle. Any clothing Humperdinck wear in the film is based on one of these colours. The only scene in which he wears something different, is when he tells Buttercup that he will send Westley her letters. This is after the Prince’s motivations are truly known to the audience, and to some extent, Buttercup. In this scene he wears an odd combination of green and brown neutral tones. Almost as if to exhibit his fall from grace, in dressing him with clothes the same shade as those below his station. These are similar colours to what peasants in the courtyard wear, as we see in the low angle shots used during crowd scenes. When the Prince and Count Rugan are in the forest together during one of the scenes of conspiring, they are wearing extremely similar outfits. The idea that

these similarities in colours and shades makes the whole royal court like a single unit. When Buttercup has her nightmare about marrying Humperdinck and the King dying, she images the Prince in red again. The queen, off to his right is wearing red as well, but with black to show that she is in mourning. The distinct lack of black shown on Humperdinck displays Buttercups feelings on her husband to-be as an unsympathetic character. The wedding scene is possibly one of the most inconsequential to take place. It does however, show the entire group of royals, Buttercup included, as being a single unit. Humperdinck, his father, and the bride, are all wearing the same shades of blue and white. The queen however, matches Rugen’s green ensemble, hinting almost at an unseen storyline in which the queen is it on the plan all along.