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
Yellin realizes there's nothing he can do, so he grabs the key to the castle and puts it on his pocket. Westley expected this, so he, Fezzik, and Inigo threaten Yellin until Yellin hands over the key. At this point, Fezzik throws off the burning cloak and the three slip through the castle gate. Before they can make a plan to meet up after stopping the wedding, Inigo races away in pursuit of Count Rugen. At the same time as they're sneaking in, Prince Humperdinck hurries the old and nearly deaf Archdean along in his service. Buttercup knows that Westley is coming as the Archdean declares the couple man and wife. Count Rugen runs away immediately after and is perplexed to see Westley and a Spaniard with familiar scars on his face.
Pay attention to the fact that the heroes are getting split up without a plan, something that Fezzik has already said makes him anxious. This suggests that if the heroes are going to make it through this situation, Fezzik is going to have to become comfortable thinking for himself and coming up with some way to get back to his friends. Yellin's quick surrender suggests that, like Buttercup, he values his life over love or loyalty.
Themes
King Lotharon and Queen Bella arrive at the chapel just after the ceremony. Prince Humperdinck asks them to escort Buttercup to his chambers, as he needs to go deal with the attack from Guilder. Halfway there, Buttercup realizes that Westley isn't coming for her. She sighs and decides to commit suicide.
Notice that Prince Humperdinck specifically mentions that this is an attack from Guilder. This allows him to shape the story of what's happening before it's even over, suggesting that he'll easily overcome this setback.
Themes
Inigo is so startled when Count Rugen runs that Rugen is able to make it through a doorway before Inigo does anything. Inigo begs Fezzik to break down the door and Fezzik does. In the time it takes Fezzik to do this, however, Westley disappears. Inigo chases after Rugen as Buttercup pulls a Florinese dagger off the wall. As she puts it to her heart, Westley says from the bed that she shouldn't kill herself. Morgenstern notes that at this point, Westley believes he has another half-hour to live but in actuality, he only has seven minutes. A moment later, Count Rugen throws a Florinese dagger at Inigo and hits him right in the stomach. Inigo falls to his knees.
By telling two stories simultaneously (that of Buttercup and Westley and that of Rugen and Inigo), Morgenstern is able to preserve the sense of suspense he's built up so that he can resolve everything at once. The disjointed style of this chapter is something that shows up again in Buttercup's Baby, and Goldman attributes it to Morgenstern's growing maturity as a writer.
Themes
Buttercup is baffled to see Westley on the bed and not up and running. Westley suggests to Buttercup that she can become a widow just as Prince Humperdinck enters with a pair of muddy boots. Humperdinck grabs a sword and says they'll fight to the death, but he suspects a trap when Westley doesn't move and says instead that they'll fight “to the pain.”
Humperdinck is right to suspect that this is a trap, which suggests that this moment is the novel's real battle of wits. Both Humperdinck and Westley are better observers than Vizzini was, which implies that here, they're better matched.
Themes
Get the entire The Princess Bride LitChart as a printable PDF.
In a different part of the castle, Inigo apologizes to Domingo and Count Rugen remembers who Inigo is. Inigo hears both his father and MacPherson yelling at him in his head and he listens to MacPherson telling him to cover his wound. He stuffs his fist into his wound and weakly fights off Rugen's attempt to stab him through the heart. Inigo slowly stands up and continues to fight off Rugen. Rugen stabs through Inigo's arm and Inigo feels power flow through him. He tells Rugen again and again that he's going to kill him to avenge his father. Inigo makes two vertical cuts in Rugen's face and then stabs through his arm. He starts to cut Rugen's heart out and Rugen dies of fear. Inigo is thrilled as he staggers away.
For Inigo, this moment means that he's completed his lifelong goal of avenging his father—and notably, while Westley certainly helped, as did Inigo's former tutors, Inigo did this part all by himself. This shows, once and for all, that Inigo is capable of thinking, planning, and acting, especially when he's doing so in the name of love and justice.
Themes
Pleasantly, Westley tells Prince Humperdinck that if he puts down his sword, Westley will tie him up and run away with Buttercup, but if he chooses to fight, he'll die. Humperdinck believes Westley is bluffing, but Westley points out that there's no way to know if he's bluffing or not. Then, Westley explains what he meant by “to the pain.” He says that he's the Dread Pirate Roberts and if they duel and he wins, Humperdinck will live a horrible life. Westley will first cut off Humperdinck's feet, then his hands, then his nose, tongue and eyes. Westley says he'll leave Humperdinck's ears so that he can hear people scream in fear at him. At this, Humperdinck drops his sword.
The fact that this makes Humperdinck drop his sword and let Westley win speaks to the power of storytelling in the hands of someone like Westley, who knows how to use it to manipulate others. He's essentially doing to Humperdinck exactly what Goldman is doing to the reader throughout the entire novel, which again draws similarities between the story of The Princess Bride and the relationship that Goldman forms with the readers.
Themes
Westley's eyes roll and he crumples. Prince Humperdinck goes for his sword, but Westley opens his eyes again and the look in them makes Humperdinck drop his sword. Westley commands Buttercup to tie up Humperdinck as Humperdinck vows to hunt Westley. Inigo appears in the doorway and he and Westley wonder where Fezzik is. Then, Inigo tells Buttercup to help Westley up since he can't stand himself. At this, Humperdinck starts to thrash, and they hear Fezzik outside the window. Down below, Fezzik has Humperdinck's white horses. He's thrilled to see Inigo, Westley, and Buttercup and explains that he found the horses and thought they'd be perfect in case they needed to escape.
Fezzik's ability to come up with these white horses and decide that they'd be a good escape method shows that, especially when he's fighting for a cause he believes in and for people he loves, he is capable of independent and logical thought. While ending up outside the correct window is something that happens by chance within the logic of the story, because that was actually Morgenstern's choice, it illustrates how authors can easily construct situations that allow their characters to be successful.
Themes
Westley, Inigo, and Buttercup jump down one by one, and Fezzik catches them and settles them on a horse. At the gate they come face to face with the brute squad. Westley says he's out of ideas but Buttercup approaches Yellin. She commands Yellin to go save Humperdinck and says that she's the queen. At this, the brutes all race into the castle. Buttercup admits that she's not actually the queen, but it worked. The four horses race in the direction of Florin Channel. Buttercup notes that she and Westley are doomed to be together.
Here, Buttercup also gets to be successful and powerful in a way that Morgenstern has previously suggested was impossible for her. By calling on her power as queen and using it for good, Buttercup shows that she's come a long way from using her power to abuse Westley as the farm boy. Now, she understands that it's better to use her power to help her friends.
Themes
Goldman says that at this point, Goldman's father said that they lived happily ever after. He wasn't happy with this ending and only learned while abridging that Morgenstern didn't end the book this way. Morgenstern writes that Humperdinck begins to chase them, Inigo's wound reopens, Westley goes downhill, and Buttercup's horse throws a shoe. Goldman says that his father ended with “happily ever after” because he was a romantic. Goldman thinks that Westley and Buttercup did live, but didn't have an entirely happy life. He thinks that Buttercup and Westley fought like all couples do, and eventually, Fezzik and Inigo started losing fights. He believes, however, that life isn't fair—it's just fairer than death.
By offering these two different endings, one that Goldman learned as a child and one that he learned as an adult, Goldman suggests that as readers mature, they become more interested in endings like the second, which are more complex and leave more things to question. In this way, Morgenstern's ending represents the adult world, while Goldman's father's ending represents a childish and naïve world.
Themes
