Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Princess Bride, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fact vs. Fiction
The Value of Cleverness and Humility
Love, Loyalty, and Friendship
Authorship and Storytelling
Fairytales and Growing Up
Summary
Analysis
Inigo is in Despair, a place that's almost impossible to find on a map because when cartographers visit to measure it, they get depressed and give up on mapmaking. Everything there is depressing, and the locals talk only about moving but for Inigo, it holds a special place in his heart. This is where, years ago, he won his first fencing championship.
Note that Morgenstern doesn't introduce this subchapter with any sense of what time period this is—there's no indication whether this is after the events of The Princess Bride, or sometime in Inigo's past. This reminds the reader that Morgenstern isn't required to spin a story that makes sense. The name and nature of the place “Despair” is a joke on Goldman’s part, given that to be in “in despair” does indeed mean to be inconsolably depressed.
Themes
Morgenstern goes back in time to when Inigo is 20. Inigo is still wandering the world training to fence so he's prepared to kill Count Rugen and avenge Domingo. He's been in Iceland and the tropics but now, he's in Italy to train with Piccoli. Piccoli is the “king of the mind” and has heard of Inigo, as he's heard that Yeste sometimes takes difficult jobs to Domingo Montoya. Piccoli secretly wants to see the six-fingered sword. He spends his days sitting and going deep inside his mind. One morning, Piccoli is ripped out of his mind by the sudden appearance of young Inigo Montoya with the six-fingered sword.
The fact that Inigo trains in so many different places and with so many different people continues to show that he's very good at learning and in particular, that he's good at identifying what he doesn't know—in this case, he doesn't know how to harness his mind in addition to his body.
Themes
Inigo asks Piccoli to help him train his mind, but Piccoli explains that this is useless. To prove his point, he asks Inigo what he wants most in the world. When Inigo says he wants to kill Count Rugen, Piccoli screams that what Inigo really wants is an end to the pain he feels from losing Domingo. He must learn to refocus his thoughts away from revenge, as this will make him vulnerable to Count Rugen. Piccoli agrees to take Inigo on and insists that he must let his body go soft so that he can tune into his mind. Inigo spends his days sleeping and thinking about his mind and every evening, he gets to practice fencing for fifteen minutes.
Explaining that Inigo spent so much time specifically training his mind adds more weight to all the evidence Morgenstern gives that Inigo is actually more intelligent than he gave himself credit for in The Princess Bride. It also suggests that while Morgenstern overwhelmingly implies that love and loyalty are positive things, here, it's something that can be a liability when there's too much of it.
Themes
One evening, Piccoli goes to the village and leaves Inigo alone. A young woman dressed like a servant appears in the doorway and Inigo inexplicably tells her that he can't marry her. The woman (Giulietta) is confused, says she lives in the castle, and asks Inigo to tell her of his dreams. Inigo explains that he made up companions for himself when he was traveling and a girl who looks just like Giulietta has been his constant imaginary companion. Giulietta is touched, but insists that he must tell this story to lots of girls. She comes back every morning for a few days and tells Inigo how stupid different parts of his dream are until finally, she comes at dusk and asks about Count Rugen. Inigo fences for her and she asks what he plans to do to support them after he kills Count Rugen.
Giulietta's fixation on the practicalities of what their theoretical life might look like together shows that Inigo hasn't yet learned enough from Piccoli to behave in a truly logical way. Indeed, Inigo hasn't thought about what he's going to do after he's killed Count Rugen, as this is what he dedicates his entire life to doing. By illustrating these places where Inigo falls short, Morgenstern offers the reader insight into what Inigo will have to learn next.
Themes
Get the entire The Princess Bride LitChart as a printable PDF.
Giulietta stays away until the night of a grand ball. She beckons to Inigo and sneaks him into the castle to watch. They take in the splendor for a moment until Giulietta whispers that the Count will see them. She hides him behind a door, but the Count furiously finds Inigo. He's distraught to hear that Inigo is a Spaniard and catches Inigo motioning for Giulietta to run. He roars that Giulietta is his daughter and turns away. Giulietta says that her father likes Inigo.
When Inigo is so taken with Giulietta and tries to protect her, it shows that he desperately wants someone alive to love and to care for—clearly, Giulietta is important enough to distract him from his quest to learn everything that he can so that he can avenge his father.
Themes
Giulietta and Inigo dance the night away until Inigo accuses Giulietta of lying about being a Countess. She says that she always dresses as a servant girl so that she can judge the character of the men who visit to ask for her hand. She says that she's thought long and hard about Inigo and has decided that he's won her heart. They kiss and dance all night, and Inigo is happy for the first time since Domingo died.
Giulietta's lie again shows the power of storytelling: she's able to deceive these men by telling them a specific (untrue) story about who she is, which in turn allows her to make better choices about her own life. Per Morgenstern's development of what constitutes intelligence, this is the highest form of it.
Themes
Goldman explains that this chapter stops here. He calls it the Unexplained Inigo Fragment and his editor didn't want to include it because nothing happens. He believes, however, that this passage is important because Morgenstern shows the reader that Inigo is human. Clearly Inigo and Giulietta part and he ends up in Despair. Goldman says that he thinks this is Morgenstern at his best and Stephen King agreed. King put Goldman in contact with a cousin at Florin University, who insisted that Morgenstern includes symbolism in this passage that indicates that Inigo learns that Humperdinck plans to kidnap Westley and Buttercup's first child, and so Inigo has to race to One Tree Island to save the day. Goldman tells the reader not to worry if they don't get it; he doesn't get it either.
Goldman's explanation of what this passage means speaks to the many different ways of interpreting literature. For someone like Goldman, who's interested primarily in the story, this allows him to develop a better understanding of a beloved character that will then help the plot. Goldman invokes Stephen King’s name to give his assertion credence, given how popular and respected King was as an author at the time. Stephen King's cousin, on the other hand, represents the Florinese scholars like Professor Bongiorno, whom Goldman suggests don't actually know what they're saying. By assuring the reader that it's normal to not get this symbolism, he encourages them to not take those scholars too seriously.
Themes
