Transcript The Princess Bride- S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true

The Princess BrideS. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure
By Hope Robinson
Once 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
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Content
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Pictures
Table of Contents
Prince Humperdinck
Inigo Montoya
Fezzik
Vizzini
Buttercup
Westley
Dread Pirate Roberts,
Yeste and Yellin
Miracle Max & Valerie
Domingo, the king & Queen
Count Rugen & Countess
Setting
Rising Action & Conflict
Climax & Falling Action
Author Biography
Author’s Other Books
My Review
Pictures
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 Montoya
The Spanish Swordsman
"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya; you killed my
father; prepare to die."
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.
Fezzik 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.
VIZZINI
Vizzini 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.
Buttercup 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.
Westley
Westley 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
D.P.R.- The most feared pirate name on the seas. Dread Pirate
Roberts captured Westley, and passed the name onto him.
YESTE- Madrid's most famous sword-maker, for whom Inigo's
father, Domingo Montoya, made back-order swords.
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 & Valerie
Miracle 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 Countess
Count 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.
Setting
Setting (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 & Conflict
Rising 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.
CLIMAX
Climax · 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.
Author Biography
William 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.
Additional Information on William Goldman:
http://www.filmmakers.com/artists/williamgoldman/biography/index.htm
http://www.twyman-whitney.com/film/celluloid_profiles/goldman.html
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
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Facts
Genre: a comedy/adventure, and also falls into and satires fantasy, romance
and science-fiction
It is presented as if it were an abridgment of a work by S. Morgenstern, and Goldman's 'commentary' asides are
constant throughout.
Time and place written: 1973, USA
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.
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.”