Examples Of Allegory In William Goldman's 'Inigo'

William Goldman develops the character Inigo Montoya through a backstory by illustrating the character’s goals and building up the character through a developed sense of empathy towards the character. Goldman made many unconventional writing choices in his novel, and many of them have a purpose. An example of this is the backstories used. Readers will see backstories, or some figment of their past, for many of the main characters. Inigo’s backstory begins on page 105, while he is waiting for the man in black to reach the top of the Cliffs of Insanity. In this backstory, readers are introduced to the character’s father, Domingo Montoya. On page 105, it is stated, “He was fantastically happy. Because of his father. Domingo Montoya was funny-looking and crotchety and impatient

When a character in a novel has that type of human feeling, readers will feel a sense of empathy for Inigo. Spoiler warning, in Inigo’s backstory his father dies, and after, Inigo swears to take revenge against the man who killed his father: Count Rugen. This fact revealed in his backstory gives Inigo’s character more depth as he now has a specific goal he wants to achieve, a goal that he’s going to work toward throughout the novel. Without this information, Inigo would still be a flat character to the reader; a character who is only working for someone higher than him with no apparent purpose other than serving. After Inigo’s backstory, Inigo already must have many readers rooting for him, as they now either feel connected to him through his experiences as a child or feel great sympathy for him. Later in Inigo’s backstory, readers learn that he wants to avenge his father by killing Count Rugen, and in order to do that, he spends many years of his life preparing and learning the ways of fencing, so he can be successful when in a duel against