The Princess Bride- S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure By Hope Robinson

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The Princess Bride-S. Morgenstern's classic tale
of true love and high adventureBy 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...
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THE PRINCESS BRIDE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page Content 1.
Pictures 2. Table of Contents
3. Prince Humperdinck 4.
Inigo Montoya 5. Fezzik 6.
Vizzini 7. Buttercup 8.
Westley 9. Dread Pirate
Roberts, 10. Yeste and Yellin
11. Miracle Max
Valerie 12. Domingo, the king Queen
13. Count Rugen
Countess 14. Setting
15. Rising Action Conflict
16. Climax Falling Action
17. Author Biography 18.
Authors Other Books 19.
My Review 20.
Pictures 21. Facts

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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.
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Inigo MontoyaThe 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.
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Fezzik
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.
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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.
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BUTTERCUP
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
deathshe 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.
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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.
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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. Hes rather
dim-witted, but is loyal to the death.
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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.
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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 wouldnt
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.
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Count Rugen his Countess
Count Tyrone Rugen  -  Prince Humperdinck's
right-hand man. Hes 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.
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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 Buttercups familys 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.
Its also almost the countrys 500th anniversary,
so the atmosphere is joyous and full of
excitement for the celebrations to come. Not many
know of Prince Humperdincks 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.
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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.
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Falling Action
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.
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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/willia
mgoldman/biography/index.htm
http//www.twyman-whitney.com/film/celluloid_profi
les/goldman.html
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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)

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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. Its 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 cant 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.
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PICTURES
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Facts
Publisher Ballantine Books
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".
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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.