Beth

Beth March is probably the most understated of all the March sisters. Quiet and reserved, she doesn’t seem to have much in common with her outgoing and adventurous sisters. But when you look beneath the surface of the little women featured in the story, you see several threads that are common to all four of them – threads that are arguably most plainly visible in Beth. She is one of the forces, standing side by side with Marmee, that hold the little women together, especially in the case of Jo. Beth is a subtly powerful voice of gentle reason, and it’s amazing the impact that she has on the world – her world – around her; that is, her family.

Of course, there are traits that make Beth her own person. Unlike most of her sisters, she was a homebody through and through, and she didn’t care who knew it. While Jo was dreaming of Europe and Amy was thinking of anywhere but there, Beth knew that she had everything that she wanted right at home; why go anywhere else? This is one of the things that I think is so endearing about Beth. She always knew that the family she had was the most important thing to her. Little Women is a story that is largely about young ladies finding out first who they are and how to be that person to the best of their ability. Beth is, in most ways, an exception to that generalization. She knew full well who she was: her mother and father’s daughter, and her best friends’ sister.

On top of this, Beth had a fascination and a love of music, unique among her sisters. True, the March family loved singing together, displayed explicitly in the many carols sung during different Christmastimes, but Beth was always the one sitting at the piano providing the music to sing to. Her delicate, tender fingers always seemed to find a home among the black and white keys of the keyboard. Her love of music alludes to her very nature of understanding and being understood. Music is often referred to as the universal language of the human soul, and I don’t disagree. The fact that Beth was the one chosen to have musical ability among the four sisters highlights to the audience that she is connected to those around her, and even connects them herself; a picture that I find rather beautiful.

These connecting facets of Beth’s personality are easy to see when you look at her. She was an excellent listener (something that Jo appreciated and made use of frequently), was incredibly generous with what she had on numerous occasions throughout the story, and, no matter what Beth was going through herself, she always supported anyone who needed it with everything she had to give. From her sisters who faced crisis after crisis that Beth often felt were bigger and more important than what she was going through, to the Hummel family that lived nearby and needed far more than Beth could have ever given them, Beth was never focused on herself. Even when Beth was incredibly sick with scarlet fever, she thought of her Marmee, and refused to let her sisters call Marmee back from Washington D.C. until she thought she was ill enough because Beth didn’t want to bother Marmee. Beth is the epitome of selflessness, and her heart overflowed with kindness and gratefulness because of it.

Even the gentle, caring Beth had a downfall, however. When we look at Little Women next, we will examine just that. For though she was filled with wonderful things and thoughts of other people, she thought very lowly of herself, and that caused extreme meekness and shyness in the second-to-youngest March sister. Join us as we look at how that affected her life, and how she eventually overcame it!

Mr. John Brooke

John Brooke was tutor to Laurie before Laurie went to college, and eventually he also became suitor and husband to Meg March. One of the main things that comes to my mind when I think of Mr. Brooke is his tenderness of spirit. He was a gentle man, caring and patient. These qualities mirror Meg’s own, complimenting her beautifully without being overwhelmingly contrary to her nature. While opposites may suit some couples, I think that Meg’s virtues would’ve been lost and overrun had she married someone that was loud and brash and generally opposite of her. John always took time to be careful and gentle with her, in conversation and in how he treated her. We also see rather clearly that he cherishes the small things in life; for instance, when he ‘stole’ Meg’s white glove as a memento. This kind of slow, sweet love is exactly what Meg needed, whether or not she knew it.

One of the other fantastic qualities to Mr. Brooke is his intentionality. He was aware that if he wanted Meg, he was signing up for her whole family, and he wasn’t afraid of this in the least. In fact, he cherished it. When Marmee received a telegram that Mr. March was injured in the war and made the decision to go and care for him in Washington D.C., John was quick to offer to accompany Marmee and ensure that she arrived safely. He said that he had a job in D.C., and it would be senseless to not go with Marmee seeing as that was the case, but the March women saw the gesture for what it was: incredibly thoughtful and selfless. I think that this was the moment that Meg realized that it really was feasible to marry this man someday. She saw how sincerely he cared not only for her, but for her whole family. That was something that Meg valued incredibly, and it was a big piece in winning her heart.

The last time we looked at Meg, however, she had quite a different set of ideals in her head as far as a suitor went. She was flitting and floating at her friend’s coming out party, happy to be primped and pampered. John Brooke came from nothing and had nothing; the only guarantee his status gave her was that it would be a very similar life to the one she had under her father’s roof. However, I think that between Laurie calling her out at the party, Meg realizing that at her heart of hearts she was not a vain girl and was very content in the life she lived if she wanted to be, and John’s tenderness, intentionality, and gentleness with her, she was able to see past the monetary view of the situation and love John Brooke for who he was.

John is one of the kindest characters featured in Little Women. However, he does have to take a hard second to one of the March sisters themselves; everyone knows that Beth takes the cake in this department. The next time we look at this story, we will be switching our focus from Meg to Beth. Join us as we look at Beth’s subdued, yet powerful story line!

Envy

Google defines envy as a noun as follows: “a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.” This description is true to life and true to what Meg March went through on the road to becoming a woman. While Meg was kind and understanding and strove to be the best daughter she could be, she also was painfully aware, at times, of the financial situation the March family was in compared to the families around them.

One such instance was when one of Meg’s high-society ‘friends’ was having a coming out ball to celebrate her coming of age. Meg was invited, but when she went to this friend’s house to get ready with the other young women, they begin making snide remarks about her clothing and how she looks, eventually culminating in the hostess taking Meg and making Meg her ‘pet’. They dress her up in their fine gowns and corsets and makeup and do her hair beautifully – and Meg rather enjoys it.

The next time we see her is at the ball itself, where she is being flirtatious and reveling in the attention of four or five well-off suitors. This is where we see Laurie at the ball for the first time. It only takes seconds for him to notice Meg’s situation. Laurie demonstrates his knowledge and caring for the March sisters here for the first time. He can see right through Meg’s games and knows that the woman he sees is not the Meg he knows. Laurie also proves his own character by confronting Meg about it. He’s not afraid to point out her inconsistencies and remind her of the woman that her Marmee raised her to be. Meg breaks down at the reminder, and we even see her trying viciously to wipe off her lipstick with a cloth while hiding in a room off the main ballroom. Laurie doesn’t abandon her to her shame, however. He comes alongside her and comforts her, and promises to let her tell her family on her own terms. This speaks volumes about both Laurie and Meg: Laurie cares for Meg like a sister and wants to see her in healthy situations and being the best that she can, and while Meg may have been pulled away from what she knew was right, when she is reminded of the things she ought to do she quickly realizes her faults and owns up to her mistakes. All these things are admirable qualities in both of these characters.

Meg does return home and tell Marmee and Jo about how foolish she’d been. She confesses to her family that she liked being pampered, expecting to be admonished for it. But Marmee, as always, has unexpected words to impart wisdom to her girls. She tells them that everyone likes the attention and pampering, but that it’s when a person becomes obsessed with it that it can lead to them believing that their looks and outward beauty is where their worth lies. Marmee reminds her daughters that this the last thing she wants for them, and Meg is happy to agree, having tasted the other side of the coin.

When Meg experienced the lavish life that she might have if she marries ‘well’, she began to think that it was what she wanted in a husband. On Friday we’re going to look at the man that Meg ended up marrying, and we will see how he compared to this vision and why Meg married him at all. Come back then for a look at Mr. John Brooke!

Unconventional Humor

So far in our study of The Princess Bride, we’ve seen several conventional and unconventional elements that make up its signature style of storytelling. From having some classically structured characters, like Westley, Buttercup, and Humperdinck, to nontraditional roles, like Fezzik, Inigo, and Miracle max, there is a wide array of people to explore in The Princess Bride. While we’ve looked briefly at the actual structure of the story, however, we’ve focused mostly on the characters that make up the story’s cast. In our examination of the bones of the story, we’ve seen that in most aspects it’s pretty typical, but for the sake of saving the best for last, we haven’t discussed one major unconventional aspect of the style in The Princess Bride. That’s what we’re looking at today: the uncommon humor that’s made this story so memorable for audiences young and old.

The humor found in The Princess Bride, in the film at least, begins before the book is ever opened. We are introduced to a setting that is far from the land of Florin: the bedroom of a sick little boy who is being visited by his grandpa. The stubbornness of the boy to not enjoy a “kissing book” matched by the stubbornness of his grandfather to finish said book provides hilarious injections into the story. The grandson complains about normally enjoyable elements of the story until the very end, and approves pieces of the story that typical viewers would not (see “Killed by pirates is good!”). The whole dynamic between these two family members and the story that they’re bonding over sets the scene for the even more outrageous humor found within the book’s pages.

Once we do get to the humor found in the actual story, though, we are far from disappointed. A big piece of what makes the storyline within the book is its relation to the grandfather and grandson enjoying the story along with us. The two of them are there to accentuate the already comical events of the story. I call the events of the story comical not only because they are so dramatically distant from those in real life, but also for how positively dramatic and serious the character’s reaction to the circumstances are. When the audience is already laughing at how quickly and bluntly we were told that Westley was killed by pirates, Buttercup only heightens the humor of the situation by “locking herself in her room” and declaring that she would “never love again”. Now, I understand that these circumstances were not in any way comical to first-time viewers who enjoy being wrapped up in a good story, but let’s be honest: the delivery and the outlandishness of it all is kind of funny. We see this type of dramatic seriousness in the rest of the story, from Inigo and Westley’s sword fight to the Fire Swamp and still to the palace of Humperdinck. It’s almost as if the characters themselves are working overtime to stay serious in the face of what’s happening around them.

Then we hit the point in the story where we meet Miracle Max. If the rest of the characters were trying to hold it together despite their circumstances, Max gave up on that a long time ago. He blatantly finds the prospect of ruining Humperdinck’s life hilarious, and doesn’t attempt to hide his humorous quirks. He’s only half serious about even his miracles, stopping in the middle of explaining his miracles to talk about MLTs and advising against swimming after getting a miracle from him. To top off the humor of the story, We’re met with the “Impressive Clergyman” (yes, that’s how he’s listed on IMDb). Although not intentionally comical like Max, his speech impediment and the serious reactions he reaps from the Humperdinck and Buttercup never fail to send audiences into fits of laughter. How Humperdinck could be so mad and Buttercup act so depressed in the face of the hilarity of the clergyman still baffles me.

I believe that all the ‘stereotypical’ elements of The Princess Bride were crafted that way intentionally. All elements of this cult-classic point and add to the humor that’s so widely recognized and enjoyed, and if a single part had been altered, it just wouldn’t be the same. As is tradition with the last post of the month, I will announce the next story of the month, but first I have a not as fun announcement to make. Due to circumstances of life beyond my control, my life has been a little out of control lately, and I need a month to get things sorted out and get standing on my own two feet again. Which is why I will not be making posts in February of 2019, but instead will resume in March 2019. I hate to make this call, but I don’t believe my posts would have been the quality that I demand of myself for my readers had I continued on through February. Once we return in March, we will begin a series that I am very much looking forward to: We will give an in-depth look at The Chronicles of Narnia! C.S.Lewis is one of my all-time favorite authors, and The Chronicles of Narnia have impacted my life in too many ways to count. I hope to see all of us regrouped and ready to dive into the story of Narnia Lewis graced us with in March. Goodbye for now, story addicts. I will return in little more than a month’s time!

Miracle Max and Valerie

If and when someone were to begin a conversation with you about the plentiful number of characters in high-fantasy fiction stories who fall into the generalized category of wise, old members of society who have magical tricks up their sleeve, which, for the record, happens to me all the time, characters who spring to mind are Gandalf. Dumbledore. The professor from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mentors that provide wisdom to the main characters and help bail them out of hard situations, when need be. In high-fantasy type stories, we see repeated, classic personifications of the mentor archetype. So where does this character appear in a wonderfully otherworldly story such as The Princess Bride? Though he looks almost nothing like any of the mentors mentioned above, I’m here to tell you: that man is Miracle Max.

The first of many unconventional aspects of Miracle Max that sticks out to me is the timing of his entrance into the plot of The Princess Bride. Usually the magical mentor figure appears close to the beginning of the story, there to help the hero navigate their adventure from the beginning. Sometimes the hero will know their mentor before they embark on their adventure, like with Gandalf and Frodo. Other times, the mentors are allies that the heroes find after they’ve already begun their journey, like with Harry and Dumbledore. Either way, the mentor serves as a navigator for the hero, helping them orient themselves on their path. Miracle Max is a massive exception to these standard cases. Until the story is just about three quarters over, we don’t even know that Miracle Max exists. Even when he enters the scene, he doesn’t do much mentoring for anyone involved, either. He’s sort of just there to offer his magical abilities and cures.

He doesn’t offer these things freely, however: Max is obstinate that he won’t help Inigo and Fezzik revive Westley. He tries to tell us that this is because his self esteemed is ruined due to Prince Humperdinck firing him. In reality, Max is still throwing himself a massive pity party because he was fired from his work at the palace, and is essentially pouting and refusing to do anything because he’s too busy pouting. Enter another often-unseen variation on the wise mentor: Max’s wife, Valerie. She has been listening in on the dialogue between Max and Inigo and Fezzik the whole time, and is outraged at the pity party her husband is insistent on having. She’s heard that Westley deserves to life for his true love, and is getting on her husband for not helping them.

This is when it hits Inigo: Max is full of plenty of selfish motives against Prince Humperdinck, which is not common for mentors. Usually the wise, old person in the mentor role has only the greater good in mind, and has faith in the hero or heroes that they can do what’s right, if only with a little help. Not so with Miracle Max. Max is bitter, having been fired by Humperdinck himself. It’s only when Inigo figures out that this is the only thing that will motivate Max that he can talk Max into reviving Westley. The only thing that would turn his head was that if Westley lived, he would take down Prince Humperdinck, as the prince was holding Buttercup captive. Miracle Max nearly exploded with glee at this point, and he became suddenly all too eager to help Westley.

There is one last huge part of Max that sets him apart from his peers such as Gandalf and Dumbledore. Max doubles as comedy relief. Granted, the vast majority of The Princess Bride is some form of comedy relief, but this is highly unusual to see in a character that upholds the mentor archetype. The whiny tone to everything he says, his banter with Valerie, and even the comical quality to the cure he has for being almost-dead makes us laugh with and at Max. This is a deviation from the typical sage guide that is the hallmark of a mentor, and everyone loves and remembers Max for it.

The unique humor of Miracle Max, and, really, the whole of The Princess Bride is going to be the focus of the last post of the month, coming this Monday as we close out not only our study of the conventional and unconventional aspects of the story of the month, but the study of The Princess Bride as a whole. Join us again on Monday as we dissect this beloved tale in a new light and I announce the topic of conversation for next month!

Classic Story Structure

Story structure is something that writers study for most of their lives, only to bend and twist and make their own when they’re ready to write the story that’s been inside them all along. There are countless studies and classes and books about how to go through this process of making story structure unique to you and your story, and a lot of them rightly center around the theme of your story. What you’re trying to get across through your work of fiction predominantly determines how you’re going to structure your story, since story structure does so much to affect how things come across in your writing. Today, we don’t have time to look at the entire structure of The Princess Bride, but we will look at a few main points of the story that are very in line with traditional story structure.

One of the most easily recognizable elements of story structure is the point in the story where it feels like the writers are almost building up the hero’s endurance before he or she has to face the main villain once and for all. Sometimes writers do this through puzzles and other intelligence tests, sharpening the hero’s wit and adding to the tricks up their sleeve that will come in handy when they need to outsmart their nemesis. Other times a writer focuses on bettering their hero’s combat skills, sending increasing numbers of soldiers (or the equivalent for their story) to challenge the hero and delay him or her on their quest to take down the goon’s master. In The Princess Bride, Westley had to face both types of trials wrapped up into one. When he returns from the pirate ship Revenge as the man in black who follows Vizzini and company in an effort to rescue Buttercup, he is about to face three trials before he faces Prince Humperdinck himself. Inigo tests Westley’s skill with a sword, Fezzik tested his strength and agility in hand-to-hand combat, and Vizzini himself challenged his wits and ability to think on his feet to win this final competition. Westley came through every test with flying colors, just as the audience who was cheering him on knew he would.

The moment of most tension in a story, the moment when all hope is lost, and there’s no way everything could possibly be resolved in the few minutes of movie or scarce chapters left – this is the moment of death and rebirth. In some stories, a part of the hero dies; maybe an addiction or a toxic relationship. Sometimes the audience is led to believe that the hero has actually died, perhaps if they fell off a cliff or were stabbed. The exact opposite of what was needed for a happy ending has happened, and, if the storyteller has roped people in well, the audience has lost hope. This moment, interestingly enough, actually happens twice in The Princess Bride. The first time we see this happen is when Humperdinck comes into the pit of despair where Westley is being held captive and uses Count Rugen’s machine to suck fifty years of Westley’s life away, leaving him dead, for all the audience knows. Even though Fezzik and Inigo find Westley after this has happened and cured him with the help of Miracle Max, the death-and-resurrection moments are not done yet. Even though the new trio works valiantly to stop the wedding of Humperdinck and Buttercup, they get married, and Buttercup is full of despair. She doesn’t know what to do. She’s beating herself up over letting Westley go again after she had him, and decides that the only way to escape her circumstances is by taking her own life. Thankfully, Westley was there to stop her, which leads rather nicely into the last traditional element of story structure that we’re going to talk about today.

After all the trials, hard decisions, and perilous times, there is one thing that you can always count on in the end of The Princess Bride and other stories like it: a happy ending. Westley saves the day, Inigo finally takes down the six-fingered man, Fezzik is waiting outside of the palace with getaway horses when they’ve successfully conquered their foes, and Westley and Buttercup share a kiss that leaves all the other most passionate kisses in history behind. It’s what the audience has been waiting for, and The Princess Bride does not disappoint. Some stories take several installments to reach their happy ending, and a lot of times they’re not quite as perfect as Westley and Buttercup’s moment of victory, but that doesn’t change how wonderful and satisfying the end of this beloved classic is.

Tomorrow is the last Friday of the month, and as such, we’re going to be looking at characters from The Princess Bride for the last time. Join us as we look into two characters who are both traditional and out-of-the-box elements of the story: Miracle Max and his wife (not a witch), Valerie!

Buttercup

Buttercup, the princess referred to in the title The Princess Bride, is the leading lady of the story. Many see Buttercup and are quick to point out how shallow and unrealistic she is, and in some respects, this is true. In a post later on this month, I will talk about why I think that this character construction was intentional, but for now, we’re going to look at a couple of the ways that Buttercup was a realistic representation of things that everyone goes through, even though what she went through herself was not the everyday occurrence.

The first way I notice Buttercup as a tangible character is how she recognizes and deals with her feelings. At the very beginning of the movie, recognizing and dealing with her feelings is something Buttercup seems loathe to do. It takes her what the narrator tells us is quite a while before she realizes what the audience suspected from Buttercup’s first few moments on screen: she loves the farm boy named Westley as much as she loves to give him grief. She goes from pestering him without a second thought as to why, to realizing that he loved her, to slowly realizing that she loved him back. I think that it’s very human to have such an obliviousness to our own emotions and feelings, and it’s also normal to have a rather hesitant nature in dealing with them once we realize that they’re there, just like Buttercup did. She started acting silly, like telling Westley to fetch her something that was easily within her reach, just to keep him around before she ever admitted her feelings to herself, much less Westley.

The other piece of Buttercup that I find to be close to how a real person would act is her rash decision making skills. Once she knows that the masked man is in fact Westley, she is desperate to not loose him to death ever again. So, once the pair is out of the fire swamp and are met with Prince Humperdinck and his guard who are determined to take Buttercup to the palace, Buttercup panics and agrees to go with Humperdinck so long as Westley gets to live the life he’s established on the high seas. Audiences and Westley alike gasped with confusion as she offered to return with the horrid prince, but to her, Westley’s life was more important than her happiness. This may not be the motivator for the rash decisions that real people make, but it was Buttercup’s, and when this choice didn’t work out the way she had intended, she planned to make another choice that not all of us would’ve chosen: killing herself. She had expected Westley to return from his pirate ship and rescue her before her wedding to Humperdinck, but since Westley was never returned to his ship in the first place and was instead kept in captivity, this didn’t happen. She tells her new father in law, the king of Florin, that she intends to kill herself as soon as she gets back to her room. Thankfully, Westley had indeed come for her, and she never got the chance to follow through with that plan.

Buttercup was, in many aspects, a traditional Damsel in Distress. But the structure of her character also had some realistic flaws, and I believe that the ones listed here today helped Buttercup become a beloved household name to all who have watched The Princess Bride. I apologize to my fellow story addicts about the delay in posts; you can expect a new post both this coming Thursday and Friday. Tomorrow we will look at a very traditional element of The Princess Bride: its standard story structure. The topic for tomorrow is rich and full of things to learn from; I can’t wait to dive in!

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!

The Classic Villain

The Yin to every hero’s Yang, the menacing evil looming over the good-doer’s head, the essential opposite to every charming swashbuckler such as Westley, we come to just that: the classic villain. Prince Humperdinck has been hated by audiences and readers of The Princess Bride ever since the story came into being. But what makes him so memorable? If he is such a classic stereotype, why does he stick in our minds? That’s a question that we’re going to be exploring throughout the month of January, specifically on Mondays. This week we will look at a stereotypical aspect of The Princess Bride, and next week we will look at a way that the story goes out of the box, with the pattern repeating itself for the last two weeks of the month.

Prince Humperdinck interferes just where he should not: in the grieving Buttercup’s life. The first thing we see of Buttercup after hearing that Westley died was the announcement that Humperdinck, exercising his royal right, has chosen Buttercup to be his bride, leaving fans who get equally as swept into the story as I irate. Before he is even revealed as the mastermind behind the plot to kidnap and kill Buttercup, we saw how unhappy the engagement made Buttercup, and it made us unhappy by extension. By the time we found out that Humperdinck was the main villain behind everything (which was just confirming our suspicions), we could’ve dueled with him to the pain ourselves.

But these are not the only aspects of Humperdinck that are a classic representation of elements of storytelling. The fight between Westley and Humperdinck, metaphorically, goes further than a fight between men about a woman. It is the age-old strife between good and evil. More than that; the selfless and the selfish. It’s a struggle between two sides of human nature that we, as people, love to see battled out for us. A personification of what we feel and know is right is always a rewarding situation, especially when selfishness cowards out and the perfect Westley triumphs over all.

Humperdinck’s character doesn’t go much deeper than that, but that’s what it needs to be for The Princess Bride to work exactly as it does. On Friday, we will look at one of the two key players in the story’s biggest subplot: Humperdink’s dastardly henchman, Count Rugen (better known as the Six-Fingered Man)!