The Value of Cleverness and Humility Theme Analysis

The core story of the novel, that of The Princess Bride itself, revolves around the fight for the hand of Buttercup, the most beautiful woman in the world. After being told that her beloved Westley has met his untimely demise at the hands of the Dread Pirate Roberts, Buttercup agrees to marry the evil Prince Humperdinck—who, in the months before their marriage, concocts an elaborate plot and hires Vizzini, Fezzik, and Inigo to kidnap and murder Buttercup to justify starting a war with the neighboring country of Guilder. Throughout their various exploits, all of these characters prove especially concerned with what constitutes intelligence and cleverness—traits the novel ultimately upholds are far more valuable than brute strength. At the same time, too much pride in one’s intellectual leads to foolishness.

The novel suggests that there are a number of different ways to be clever—and that this fact is inconvenient for those who feel threatened by others' independent thought. Such people, in turn, are likely to try to downplay or discredit the intelligence of those they see as being beneath them. This happens most obviously with Vizzini, a Sicilian criminal who treats his employees Fezzik and Inigo with a sinister air of disregard. He clearly does this to maintain his own authority over the group, positioning himself as the most intelligent party and thus the natural leader of his gang. This implicitly elevates the value of cleverness, while also asserting the danger of pride: as the plot unfolds, it becomes clear that, despite Vizzini’s frequent admonitions, neither Fezzik nor Inigo are fundamentally unintelligent, while Vizzini himself is blinded by his inflated sense of importance.

Both Fezzik and Inigo are rather slow on the uptake, but they are still more than capable of learning. Indeed, Inigo spent ten years of his youth studying fencing, something that causes his mentor Yeste to declare him a “fencing wizard” (the highest accomplishment for a fencer) at the age of 22. Through no fault of his own, however, Inigo is unable to track down Count Rugen, the man who killed his father and inspired him to learn to fence in the first place. When Vizzini finds Inigo, Inigo is a drunkard who believes himself incapable of planning things effectively. Vizzini then exploits this lack of intellectual confidence.

Fezzik, a Turkish man who's the size of a giant and incredibly strong, also learns how to manipulate his body in his youth. Yet while his parents push him into wrestling, Fezzik is far more interested in poetry and rhymes. His parents overlook his academic potential and, despite knowing that their son hates fighting, manipulate him into thinking that the only thing he is good for is violence. This lack of faith in his ability to be anything other than a brute destroys Fezzik's confidence and causes him to keep his private thoughts secret. For both Fezzik and Inigo, then, physical prowess is not enough; to feel truly confident, they require faith in their intellectual capabilities.

Vizzini uses what he knows of both Inigo and Fezzik's insecurities to continue to make them feel as though they need someone like him to tell them what to do, thereby causing them to doubt their own intelligence and problem-solving capabilities. He constantly tells Fezzik that he isn't capable of thought, something that the reader knows isn't true (as the narrator reveals some of Fezzik's perfectly coherent inner monologue) but that supports Vizzini's belief that he alone is the intelligent one of the group. However, once the three capture Buttercup and find themselves being followed by Westley, it soon becomes apparent that Vizzini's intelligence isn't as infallible as he'd like to think. Vizzini declares it “inconceivable” that anyone could be following them or that anyone is capable of scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, besting Inigo and Fezzik, or beating him in a battle of wits. All of these things are, of course, perfectly conceivable—Westley does all of them—but because Vizzini refuses to accept that others might be just as smart as he is, he's unable to even entertain the idea of being challenged and meets his untimely end when Westley outwits and poisons him.

On the eve of Buttercup and Humperdinck's wedding, Fezzik and Inigo have the opportunity to demonstrate that they are indeed capable of cleverness. Though they rush Westley's corpse to the miracle man Miracle Max in the hope that a resurrected Westley could make a plan for them to stop the wedding, the three end up getting split up when they storm the castle. Yet both Inigo and Fezzik are successful in their tasks (killing Count Rugen and developing an escape plan, respectively) despite being left to their own devices without a solid plan. All of this suggests that what is truly standing in the way of Fezzik and Inigo's ability to plan and think of themselves as clever is the belief that they're incapable of cleverness. With this, the novel suggests that cleverness is a skill that can be learned and developed just like any other. Cleverness is inculcated through encouragement and kindness, and destroyed by cruelty and pride.