Unconventional Goons

So far in our Monday studies of The Princess Bride we’ve only looked at one element of the story: its classically structured villain. This past Friday we looked at the Prince Humperdinck’s right-hand-man, Count Rugen. However, today we’re going to look at some other subordinates in Humperdinck’s master plan – ‘goons’ working under him that don’t really fit the mold of the role they’re supposed to play.

Fezzik and Inigo Montoya, to be fair, were not hired by Humperdinck himself. Who knows if these lovable characters would’ve made it into the story if he’d hand-picked who he wanted killing Buttercup! Luckily for us, Humperdinck couldn’t choose the people to carry out his wishes himself, because he didn’t want even an idea out there that he was the one who wanted his fiance dead. So who knows how many people the orders went through before Vizzini was hired and told to hire a team and kill the princess. From what we can gather in Vizzini’s words to the pair of misfits, Vizzini was looking for cheap labor who wouldn’t argue about the morality of what they were doing, thus justifying the hiring of the “brainless” unemployed giant from Greenland and the “slobbering drunk” swordsman. Both, due either to studies or natural physical state, were the obvious choice from a fighting standpoint, and very easy for Vizzini to demean and take advantage of.

What Vizzini wasn’t counting on, however, was the friendship that formed between the two. This is what distinguishes Fezzik and Inigo from Count Rugen and Vizzini and the rest of the Prince’s goons: they’re not afraid to have a heart and put it on display, allowing the strongest bond of friendship seen in The Princess Bride to form between them. Whether we see it through the two of them lightheartedly rhyming on Vizzini’s ship, or Fezzik supporting Inigo on his quest to find the six-fingered man all the way to the end, no one can deny that their friendship was as real and true as Westley and Buttercup’s love.

Fezzik and Inigo’s big hearts extend to more than just friendship with each other, however. Along their way to find the six-fingered man who killed Inigo’s father, they encounter again the “man in black”, who had tried to rescue Buttercup from them when they were working for Vizzini. Having put two and two together, they realize that this man is he who loves the Prince’s fiance, and feeling compassion for him, they help him escape the clutches of Count Rugen and work to reunite Westley and Buttercup. Which was a fantastic choice for them to make, because in the end, it led them to Count Rugen himself, who is, of course, the six-fingered man.

We’ve been talking a lot about the villains and the heroes involved on the journey that The Princess Bride takes us on, but thus far, we have neglected to examine the pivotal character that all these escapades are being risked for. That will soon be remedied, however. Join us this coming Friday as we talk about the title character of this month’s story: Buttercup herself!

The Six-Fingered Man

Count Rugen, known as the Six-Fingered Man, is (ironically) right-hand man to Prince Humperdinck and is entangled in The Princess Bride’s largest subplot. Inigo Montoya, a skilled swordsman and hired hand of Vizzini, who we will talk about on Monday, tells Westley a heart-wrenching story when they first meet. We learn from him there that Count Rugen killed Inigo’s father after essentially trying to steal a beautiful sword from him, and only spared Inigo himself, who attempted to duel Rugen to avenge his father, because Inigo was a child. Rugen did leave him with two scars on the sides of his face, however. Ever since, Inigo has been learning swordsmanship so that when he met the man, about whom he only remembered that he had six fingers on his right hand, again he would be prepared to properly duel him.

Such a heartless, cruel, and selfish person is someone who we can sensibly expect to be working closely with Prince Humperdinck. These are exactly the qualities the villain would look for in someone to help him on his warpath. While Humperdinck is set on waging war on Guilder, Count Rugen has taken to a hobby for the in between times when Humperdinck doesn’t need him. It’s not a sewing or doing puzzles, however; Count Rugen is collecting data to write a book on the effects of pain on a human. Complete with a secret lab and an albino lab assistant, Rugen is all set up for his data collection. After building a machine that painfully extracts years off the life of its victim, he begins experients on none other than Westley, who was recently captured by Humperdinck. These experiments reveal a new level of cruelty that make us hate the Count at least as much as we hate Humperdinck.

When Inigo finally finds the Count and duels him, we get a classic example of a ‘resurrection’ in storytelling. Inigo seems all but defeated by Rugen before a second wind of vengeance, adrenaline, and pure anger washes over him, and he uses his hard-earned sword skills to take Count Rugen down once and for all. It’s a textbook hopeless, all-is-lost moment before a hero triumphs over what’s wrong with the world. Even though Inigo isn’t the main hero, he’s one we can get behind and root for, and his victory becomes our own, just like that of all good stories.

We may be done talking about Count Rugen, but we still have a whole other side of Inigo Montoya to discover. Join us on Monday as our Classic vs. Unconventional series continues with a look at two of the most unconventional “evil goons” seen in a story: Fezzik and Inigo themselves!