The Hero's Journey In The Princess Bride

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

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