Archetypes In The Princess Bride

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We have all lived in the world of fairy tales and imagination but have we ever really focused on what intrigues us about these stories? The hero’s sacrifices and the villain’s decisive plots intrigue us the most in stories but these characteristics are what makes a character known for as a hero, villain and this is known as archetypes. This analyzation revolves around, The Princess Bride and archetypes that some of its character’s qualify of. According to my analysis, Westley portrays the hero, Prince Humperdinck portrays the villain/shadow and Dread Pirate Roberts portrays the Threshold Guardian. The first archetype that I have analyzed is a hero and I have identified Westley as the hero because he sacrifices many things in order to achieve his goal, a hero’s trademark. The first quote that proves this archetype is, “ I am going to America. To seek my fortune….. I love you, …show more content…

In the book, the Prince states to Buttercup, “ I am your Prince and not that bad- how could you rather be dead than married to me.” This quote explains that the Prince tries to acquire Buttercup by force and creating a conflict and struggle for Westley to unite with Buttercup as that is his goal, which will show cause a contradiction between the villian and hero. In another quote, Goldman, states, “Westley lay back on the floor of the giant cage….Westley lay dead by the Machine in the Zoo Of Death from the Ultimate Suffering given by the Prince.” Through these quotes, we can analyze that the Prince created a conflict by contradicting Westley’s goal, he creates a threat by keeping Westley in the Zoo as it increases the likelihood of Westley dieing, and the Prince destroys Westley’s existence and a struggle to fight death. Therefore, the Prince is the villain as he creates conflicts, threats and attempts to destroy