Within the frame stories and in The Princess Bride itself, the novel's characters are confronted with questions of what it means to be a good friend, parent, or partner. While “abridging” The Princess Bride, Goldman must learn to connect with his son Jason, whom he's criticized heavily for years due to Jason's weight. In the core story, Buttercup and Westley's relationship is held up as the epitome of true love only because the nonsensical authorities that Goldman and Morgenstern invoke say it is, while the genuine affection and concern for each other that Inigo and Fezzik demonstrate presents a far more compelling example of what genuine companionship looks like. In this way, the novel begins to pick at the power of these arbitrary rubrics of love and loyalty, while suggesting that a more successful and reasonable way to measure the relative quality of love or friendship is through the actions of the people involved.
In The Princess Bride, Morgenstern often references on rankings of things like beautiful women, kisses, and perfect couples. Buttercup, he insists, becomes the most beautiful woman in her early twenties, while her kiss with Westley shoots immediately to the top of the rankings of perfect kisses. The kiss rankings also suggest that Westley and Buttercup's love is true, meant to be, and more perfect than any other kind of love. Of course, such ranking systems—though presented as objective fact within the world of the novel—are patently ridiculous ways to measure subjective qualities like love and beauty. What’s more, Westley and Buttercup's actual interactions suggests isn't that their relationship isn’t so perfect after all. While Goldman notes that it's normal for couples to fight, Buttercup and Westley don't just fight: Westley is verbally and at times physically abusive towards Buttercup. For her part, Buttercup's treatment of Westley in the beginning of the story—when he works on her parents' farm—is objectively cruel: she dismissively calls him Farm Boy and orders him around for the sake of feeling powerful. Though all of this is presented in a light-hearted and satirical tone, the novel nevertheless implicitly encourages readers to take its rankings and assessments with a serious grain of salt, and to question what really constitutes the “perfect” or “best” of anything.
Though the narrator of The Princess Bride says nothing outright about Fezzik and Inigo (or indeed, about any of the numerous relationships in the novel that are kinder and more functional than that between Westley and Buttercup), their friendship offers readers an example of what true companionship looks like. Fezzik is wildly insecure about everything except his strength. He's not particularly smart, he's embarrassingly fond of rhymes, and his greatest fear is being left alone. While the Sicilian Vizzini manipulates these qualities to his advantage, Inigo gently and kindly meets Fezzik where he is. He happily participates in Fezzik's rhyming games and even makes up rhymes for Fezzik that help him remember Vizzini's instructions. Most meaningfully for both Fezzik and Inigo, the two work together and combine their strengths to infiltrate Prince Humperdinck's Zoo of Death so that they can find Westley and accomplish their other goals. During their descent through the Zoo's five levels, Inigo and Fezzik use their knowledge of the other's fears to offer encouragement as they continue, and, importantly, they do this so that they can help each other—not for one or the other's sole gain or for the sake of being cruel.
With this, Goldman crafts a story that offers readers a lesson in how to evaluate relationships, whether romantic or platonic, and suggests that more important than nonsensical rankings is being able to carefully look at how someone treats another person.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Love, Loyalty, and Friendship ThemeTracker
Love, Loyalty, and Friendship Quotes in The Princess Bride
The more I flipped on, the more I knew: Morgenstern wasn't writing any children's book; he was writing a kind of satiric history of his country and the decline of the monarchy in Western civilization.
But my father only read me the action stuff, the good parts. He never bothered with the serious side at all.
I know I don't expect this to change anybody else's life the way it altered mine.
[...]
Anyway, here's the “good parts” version. S. Morgenstern wrote it. And my father read it to me. And now I give it to you. What you do with it will be of more than passing interest to us all.
“I just feel better when I know what's going on, that's all,” the Turk mumbled. “People are always thinking I'm so stupid because I'm big and strong and sometimes drool a little when I get excited.”
“The reason people think you're so stupid,” the Sicilian said, “is because you are so stupid. It has nothing to do with your drooling.”
He might also have whispered heavable thievable weavable but that was as far as he got before the Sicilian started talking again, and that always meant he had to pay very strict attention. Nothing angered the hunchback as quickly as catching Fezzik thinking. Since he barely imagined someone like Fezzik capable of thought, he never asked what was on his mind, because he couldn't have cared less.
If you're going to abridge a book in the author's own words, you can't go around sticking your own in. That was Hiram's point, and we really went round and round [...] But I got Hiram to agree that Harcourt would at least print up my scene [...] So please, if you have the least interest at all or even if you don't, write in for my reunion scene. You don't have to read it—I'm not asking that—but I would love to cost these publishing geniuses a few dollars, because, let's face it, they're not spending much on advertising my books.
“I'm very interested in pain,” the Count said, “as I'm sure you've gathered these past months. In an intellectual way, actually. I've written, of course, for the more learned journals on the subject. Articles mostly. At the present I'm engaged in writing a book. My book. The book, I hope. The definitive work on pain, at least as we know it now.”
“I understand everything,” he said.
“You understand nothing, but it really doesn't matter, since what you mean is, you're glad to see me, just as I'm glad to see you because no more loneliness.”
“That's what I mean,” said Fezzik.
“Down is our direction, Fezzik, but I can tell you're a bit edgy about all this, so, out of the goodness of my heart, I will let you walk down not behind me, and not in front of me, but right next to me, on the same step, stride for stride, and you put an arm around my shoulder, because that will probably make you feel better, and I, so as to not make you feel foolish, will put an arm around your shoulder, and thus, safe, protected, together, we will descend.”
“Fezzik, I need you,” Inigo screamed.
“I'll only be a minute,” Fezzik said, because there were some things you did, no matter what, and when a friend needed help, you helped him.
We've traveled a long way, you and I, from when Buttercup was only among the twenty most beautiful women on earth (because of her potential), riding Horse and taunting the Farm Boy, and Inigo and Fezzik were brought in to kill her. You've written letters, kept in touch, you'll never know how much I appreciate that. I was on the beach at Malibu once, years back, and I saw this young guy with his arm around his girl and they were both wearing T-shirts that said WESTLEY NEVER DIES.
Loved that.
