Use Of Satire In William Goldman's The Princess Bride

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

On the other hand, if the reader interprets it figuratively, the reader thinks of Prince Humperdink as being muscular on the outside and having a hollow personality on the inside, just like an empty barrel is tough on the outside and hollow on the inside. This causes the reader to visualize two completely different images in the reader’s head. Furthermore, satire in The Princess Bride matters because it can allow the reader to have a better understanding of a point in the novel. This is evident when Westley is brought back from the dead by Miracle Max. The author states, “ The man in black sat immobile, like a ventriloquist's dummy.” (329). If the reader did not view this part as though it is a satire, then the reader will think of Westley as being still and immobile, but if the reader viewed it as a satire, the reader will see it as Westley being lifeless on the inside but seem full of emerging life on the outside, as a ventriloquist's dummy is. This metaphor also causes the reader to imagine a corpse slowly merging with its past soul. All in all, this shows why whether The Princess Bride is a satire or not matters and how it can influence the reader’s decisions and