The Princess Bride

631 Words2 Pages

The Princess Bride

Everyone knows the story of star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, likely the inspiration for every story of star-crossed lovers that came after. The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a novel filled with adventure, friendship and love. The Princess Bride follows star-crossed lovers Westley and Buttercup as they fight through monsters, snow sand, death, torture and the evil ruler of Florin, Prince Humperdinck. They don't have to face all that without help though, Inigo, Fezzik, even the eccentric Miracle Max and his wife Valerie will risk it all to help Westley and Buttercup be together and live happily ever after. Goldman puts a twist on the archetypes of, the Star-Crossed Lovers,The Color Black and Evil Character with a Good Heart to render the story new.

The Star-Crossed Lovers archetype is used to render the story of The Princess Bride new because, at the end of the book, it is now stated whether or not Buttercup and Westley will get to live happily ever after or not. In most stories the author writes a definite ending, but Goldman doesn't, he leaves the ending up to the reader when he writes “Did they make it? Was the pirate ship there? You can answer that for yourself, but, for me, I say yes it was" (Goldman 357). In some ways though, Goldman uses the Star-Crossed Lovers archetype more traditionally, in that Buttercup and Westley love each other and want nothing more to be together, but many obstacles stand in the way of that happening. One of those obstacles is that Prince Humperdinck will go to any length and do almost anything to prevent the lovers from being together including keeping the love letters that he told Buttercup to write to Westley, which results in Westl...

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...d heart starts off evil, but by the end of the story they have turned good.

The Princess Bride puts a twist on the archetypes of, Star-Crossed Lovers, the Color Black and Evil Character with a Good Heart to render the material new. The Star-Crossed Lovers archetype is rendered new, when Goldman leaves the ending of weather or not Buttercup and Westley will live happily ever after up to the reader. The Color Black archetype is rendered new, because the man in black is the hero and not the villain. The last archetype that is rendered new in this story is the Evil Character with a Good Heart which is rendered new by the fact that Inigo and Fezzik were never really evil but they seemed evil because of who they worked for. The Princess Bride is a modern tale of star-crossed lovers who have to face obstacles just as big as Romeo and Juliet to be together.

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