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The Hero's Journey In The Princess Bride

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In the book, The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Westley is the hero archetype. Being the hero archetype, he goes through the Hero’s Journey. In his journey, he gets a call to adventure, he goes through many trials, and he goes through a crisis. At the beginning of The Princess Bride, Westley leaves his job on a farm to go to the States. While Westley is gone, he gets kidnapped by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Westley earns respect from the Roberts by helping around the ship. He Westley travels on the sea raiding ships, and after a while, gets named the new Dread Pirate Roberts. While Westley and Buttercup are in the Fire swamp, Westley passes the time by telling his story. “‘At the end of this one year, my captain said to me, ‘Enough of this valet business, Westley, from now on you are my second in command.’... Not only did I like it, but it turned out that I was talented as …show more content…

Westley comes to save Buttercup after she is kidnapped and has to face challenges. One of the challenges was fencing the best swordfighter in the world. Another was fighting the strongest man in Florin. And the last was outsmarting a genius Sicilian with mind games. After all of this, he gets kidnapped, tortured, and eventually gets killed by Prince Humperdink. While trying to save Buttercup, Westley fights a Spaniard. “‘You cannot tell it,’ he said then, ‘because I wear a cape and mask. But I am smiling now.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because I am not left-handed either,’ said the man in black. And he too switched hands, and now the battle was finally joined. And Inigo began to retreat”(Goldman 150-151). The fight against the Spaniard was not extremely hard for Westley, but it was still one of his most difficult trials, and this trial was a challenge that he overcame as the hero of the story. Later, after he gets kidnapped by Prince

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Buttercup’ parents raise Buttercup. Miracle Max resurrects Westley from the dead(sort of). The King and Queen want Prince Humperdinck to get married. The Dread Pirate Roberts is a famous pirate that captures Westley, and Westley later becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts.

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Meanwhile, Westley lies on Buttercup's bed and hugs Buttercup as Prince Humperdinck comes into the room. Humperdinck grabs a sword and advances, challenging Westley to fight to the death. Westley answers by saying that if Humperdinck comes near him, he's in for a lifetime of pain and torture. We know he can't make good on this threat, but it works, and Humperdinck doesn't approach. Inigo lies dying and apologizing to his dead father as Count Rugen approaches him with a sword.

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They were hired to take Buttercup across the Florin Channel to the neighboring country of Guilder to kill her. This would then provide the Prince with the perfect excuse to start a war with Guilder. The plan was ruined, however, when a mysterious man dressed entirely in black defeated the Sicilian Crowd and saved Buttercup. Soon after this, the mysterious stranger revealed to Buttercup that he was actually Westley, Buttercup’s true love who she thought died three years earlier. Now united with Buttercup, Westley was forced to evade the Prince and his men.

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Epic Hero A deceased, decorated mythologist, author, and lecturer named Joseph John Campbell once said, "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." A hero doesn't always have special powers or magical capabilities like you may think. You could walk by a hero every day of your life and could never know. In the film, A Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, an example of an epic hero is the protagonist, Westly because he put others before himself, went through the hell-like journey of a hero, and went through events that changed him forever. First, Westly is a hero because he put others before himself.

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These dreams fuel determination to the very end - even past death. When Westley is dead, it seems that all is lost. However, Westley is determined to be with his true love, Buttercup. Even when all hope is lost, Miracle Max asks, “What’s so important? What’s here worth coming back for?” and Westley replies, “Tr...ooooo...luv…”

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Later in the story, when Inigo and Fezzick find Westley “almost dead,” they bring him to a wizard named “Miracle Max” and his wife, a witch. Previously demoted by Prince Humperdinck, Max’s need to destroy him is motivation to assist Westley. The interaction between the witch and Max provide comic relief to the obvious peril that the characters are under. The goofy and fun-loving roles that these “witches” take on illustrate how unrealistic this scene is. They treat his death casually, concocting a chocolate pill in order to resurrect Westley, as if this was a natural solution to the problem.

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Although The Princess Bride focuses on the relationship between Westly, the poor farm boy, and Buttercup, the soon to be princess, the true hero of the story is Inigo Montoya. Inigo shows traits of heroism throughout the entirety of the book and the movie. After Inigo’s father is killed by the deranged Count Rugen, Inigo swears that he will avenge his father by killing Count Rugen (Goldman 139). Inigo also shows heroism when Westly is killed in the zoo of death; Inigo takes Westly to Miracle Max where he is brought back to life.     Inigo Montoya’s story of becoming a hero did not begin when he met Fezzik and Vizzini; or when Inigo saved Westly from the zoo of death.

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