Film review - The princess bride

Character Archetypes are specific and identifiable traits that are very frequently used in storytelling, sometimes by themselves to create characters, but more often are used as a foundation to build a character off of. These archetypes can be split into two categories – the personality archetypes that tie into a characters, traits, motivations and flaws, and archetypes that impacts a character’s role in a story. The main personality archetypes used are called the 12 Jungian archetypes. These are the ruler, the creator/artist, the sage, the innocent, the explorer, the rebel, the hero, the jester, the everyman, the lover, and finally, the caregiver. The most often used role archetypes are the hero, the herald, the threshold guardian, the shapeshifter, the shadow, the trickster, Allies, the father, the mother, the child and the maiden.

The best way of explaining some of these archetypes is using a film that uses a lot of them, and one of the best examples of this. We start with the protagonist, Westley. With Westley, we can see the personality archetypes of the hero, which is encompassed by competence and courage. The main goal of the hero is to prove their worth, and often to protect others, but not always. Westley doesn’t necessarily start out this way, but we really see this archetype come out once he comes back from being captured by the dreaded pirate Roberts. He is completely driven to get to Buttercup, his love, willing to overcome any obstacle thrown his way to get to her. He also has the plot archetype of the hero, as he is the protagonist of the film and serves to drive the plot forward. Westley also embodies aspects of the shape shifter, as he for a large chunk of the film hid his true identity from everyone, and also hid his vast skillset.

The next character is Buttercup, or the princess bride. She’s quite the mix of different archetypes, which makes her more interesting as some of her archetypes can be formulaic if used on their own. When it comes to personality archetypes, Buttercup clearly has elements of the innocent, but also the lover. These archetypes are often used for love interests, as they often make the most sense character wise- the innocent is all about naivety and hopefulness, and, as the name suggests, innocence. This is shown best when Buttercup gets kidnapped, as she fully believes that the men she meets in the forest could only have good intentions, despite all the signs saying they were suspicious. The lover comes through with all her references and interactions with both Westley and Prince Humperdinck, as she always fully loves Westley and refuses to marry Humperdinck as long as she believes he’s alive. This also shows off how innocent and naïve she is, as she believed to the very end that Westley would come and rescue her, despite the fact that from her perspective all the signs pointed to Westley being dead. When it comes to role archetypes, Buttercup best embodies The Child- Innocent, Naïve and pure, to the point where she can’t even help Westley fight off an oversized rat halfway through the film.

Next is the villain, prince Humperdinck. Right from his introduction, he comes across as an arrogant and cruel, to the point that he’d have Buttercup murdered just to have an excuse to start a war. He clearly embodies the ruler, as he’s willing to do anything to keep himself in control of any situation he’s in, often resorting to dirty tricks. He also literally embodies this archetype as the prince. He somewhat embodies the trickster as well, as most of the obstacles thrown Westley’s way come from him.

Inigo Montoya is a bit harder to identify archetypes in, but he has a few that often change as his role changes throughout the film. He starts off as a threshold guardian for Westley, as Westley must defeat him in order to continue in his quest. He later becomes an ally to Westley, as his main drive throughout the story is to avenge his father’s murder. He also fits the role of the shapeshifter quite well, as where his loyalties lie relied on who could get him closer to his goal of avenging his father.

Fezzik is very similar to Buttercup in some ways. He best fits the roles of the innocent and the caregiver. Even though he’s physically strong and willing to protect those he loves, he can be very naïve and will follow others even when they clearly don’t have the best intentions. He cares very deeply for those he cares about, such as Inigo and eventually Westley and Buttercup. He nurses Inigo back to health when he’s drunk too much, and has a big hand in reviving Westley. He also embodies aspects of the lover, but not in the traditional sense. His biggest fear is being alone, hence why he’s willing to do things that are against his morals in order to stay with others. He values the companionship of others above all, which is shown through his fierce loyalty to Inigo. It’s very unusual for a character like Fezzik to have archetypes like these, as the last thing you’d expect a giant with a reputation for being the strongest man in the world, along with a fighter, to be is caring and innocent.

In conclusion, the princess bride is fantastic at showing how character archetypes can be used without being cliché, and even turn some of them on their head such as with Fezzik.

Works Cited

Unknown, n.d. Spark Notes. [Online]
Available at: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/princessbride/characters/