The Princess Bride Analysis

Satire criticises and makes fun of the norms of human society. It adds an intellectual humour along with the archetypes that is present in the story. In The Princess Bride, by William Goldman, satire is in a wide variety of parts in the story from the communication between others to the character themselves including the Spaniard, Inigo Montoya. The author portrays Inigo as a Spaniard who becomes a fencer to seek revenge on the six-fingered man for the murder of his father, Domingo Montoya and he becomes a henchman to the criminal Vizzini. He is a very caring man to people he cares about, but he can only act on vengeance since he truly loves his father. With his attention only on reprisal, it can blind him from achieving the results he wants and that can significantly affect his personality as he is driven by it. When he finds the six-fingered man, he prepares after many years of training with famous fencers and even has a saying that he plants in his brain so that it is the driven force of vengeance. He is the ‘evil figure with an ultimately good heart’ archetype as he is a part of Vizzini’s group with Fezzik, but he has a change in heart that he needs Westley’s help to storm the castle. Although Inigo is a prestigious fencer who only cares about revenge, the author plays with satirical devices that portray the faults and weaknesses of his characteristics while maintaining his status as the best swordsman in his generation.

From his past to the present, Inigo shows wrath and wants retribution towards Count Rugen for killing his father and because of that, the author uses satire to add some intellectual humour to it. Firstly, when Inigo sees Count Rugen kills his father in front of him, he establishes a hatred and vengeful attitu...

... middle of paper ...

...author uses satire to give a surprising twist in how the character’s behaviour and personality will affect the plot of the story. He who has both revenge and pride can really influence how he behaves in a positive or negative way, depending on his own judgment. His planning skills and actions are not very tactical or well thought out. Despite that his body is flexible and fast from training for preparations to kill Count Rugen, he is not able to use it correctly because of his foolishness and he cannot comprehend rationally. What he wants is stronger than how he should think with careful deductions before act while still has to learn to be self-reliant more regularly. Although his pride and talents of a fencer compensate for his weak brain, it is not enough to succeed in his goals if he is not able to anticipate what can happen and determine different possibilities.