The Princess Bride: Chapters 2 - 5

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

We will be discussing chapters 2 - 5 of The Princess Bride in here. If you haven’t read this far yet, worry not, as this thread will still be waiting for you.

So much has happened in the narrative and in the story itself. What things particularly do you find great, amusing and/or difficult to understand? Are you feeling that what is said to be happening in the story is possible? Could it really be that true love exists and is real? The way the characters interact -- is that something you would see in a 'modern' world?



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[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

While reviewing these chapters, I'm going to discuss some of the characters I've met so far ... so spoilers ahead!

So we encounter where the kid stops reading and we have a major cutting by Goldman for the 'Good Parts' version as he slices away sixty-six pages of Florinese history. I found this hilarious. Don't know why, but ... this guy choosing to delete the dreary? Awesome!

We have a topic in Between the Pages, called Favourite Characters in Fiction. Oddly enough, the person described in Chapter 2 is a NON favourite person and yet, and yet, would the story be the same without him?

Chapter Two - The Groom
Prince Humperdinck -- lives for the hunt and is not what I would call a very pleasant person. Nope. So Chapter Two, introducing the groom, is of less than 4 pages, much of which describes his Zoo of Death.

Chapter 3 - The Courtship
This chapter is a little longer than The Groom and the first part is rather hilarious. Again, Goldman cuts out 56 1/2 pages of non-essential (and dull) stuff and talks about the courtship of Humperdinck and, NOT Buttercup, but someone named Princess Noreena. It goes wildly amuck. So then he decides to get a bride who is beautiful ... and 'courts' Buttercup basically by telling her she either marries him or she dies. "So you can either marry me and be the richest and most powerful woman in a thousand miles and give turkes away at Christmas and provide me a son, or you can die in terrible pain in the very near future. make up your own mind." She says she will never love him, he doesn't care, and so she "Then by all means let us marry."

Chapter 4 - The Preparation
is totally Goldman deleting the whole chapter and saying that the whole 105 pages of the manuscript are basically 'what with one thing and another 3 years passed' in which Buttercup is trained to be a princess. I don't know why this is so funny to me. Maybe it is because so often the written word, especially in books, is considered sacrosanct and obviously that isn't the case with Goldman! Oh, and this is written in less than one page.

Chapter 5 - The Announcement
Well. Now we get into some action! Princess Buttercup is announced to 'the world' as the person Prince Humperdinck will take for his wife in three months. She is miserable. Unhappy. She still loves to ride, though, and going out riding, after being heralded as the future Queen, she goes out and ... is kidnapped! On the fifth page of the chapter we encounter ... The Sicilian, the Turk and the Spaniard. (Oh, and we have a sneak peek at the man in black, during the announcement. More of him later.)

What's funny is that, right in the middle of reading this adventure, we are suddenly reminded that this is a story being read to a small and sick boy! The father reassures the boy that Buttercup doesn't get eaten by the sharks ... Then the story is resumed.

The Sicilian -- Vizzini -- leads the small gang of 3. Brilliant and rules the other two, not by muscular strength but by intimidation of intellect. NOT a Favorite person!
The Turk -- Fezzik. Huge and with immense strength. Honorable. Favorite person!
The Spaniard -- Inigo. On a desperate quest of vengeance. Honorable. Favorite person!
We find out where Inigo comes from and why he is on a quest of vengeance -- and against whom (the Six-Fingered Man).
Fezzik -- we learn his story.
Oddly, we don't learn Vizzini's story.
The Man in Black catches up with them. Defeats Inigo. Defeats Fezzik. Defeats Vizzini.
and he is ...... TA DA .... Westley! Buttercup and Westley are reunited! But they flee because they know that the Prince is after them. Westley reveals himself to Buttercup to be the Dread Pirate Roberts. They survive adventures in the Fire Swamp - only to be caught on the other side of it by ...Humperdinck and Count Rugen. Buttercup surrenders to Humperdinck on condition that Westley is spared. He agrees ... and when she is gone Rugen, who has 6 fingers on his right hand, clubs Westley to insensitivity.

Every once in a while, the story is interrupted by what Goldman is saying about Morgenstern or about his own wife and then something about the publisher of his books. So he backtracks sometimes in response to these comments to fill in more of story line. It's like a story within a story within a story and quite fun.

[Prof. Arielle Lemoyne]

In these chapters, I started enjoying the quirkiness of the narrator(s).

Chapter 2: I totally agree that the prince is not a pleasant person at all. How horrific just to have this zoo for the purpose of gruesomely killing things! But I have to say, I loved this bit: "Your father is dying." "Drat. That means I shall have to get married." Such emotion >>

Chapter 3: This a hilarious anecdote.The most hilarious line to me was when the prince was inquiring about the qualities of Princess Noreena and: "Lips?" "Number or color?" And the hat thing kind of goes along with how everything is so ridiculous, but has a role in the story. Like, being a renowned hat collector and having more hats than anyone -- who comes up with that? But it ends up providing an explanation that moves the story forward.

Chapter 4 is, as Tarma explained, just a one page explanation of how he cut out this chapter because "in 105 pages nothing happens." And then the following chapter is almost exactly 105 pages and EVERYTHING happens.

I remember most of Chapter 5 quite vividly from the movie. I think my favorite part is with the poison and cups. How clever (and ridiculous) for him to have built up a resistance to it. And good riddance to Mr. Inconcievable. I'm quite fond of the other two though! I want to see Inigo meet the 6 fingered man! 'm not sure how I feel about Buttercup. She's just so clueless... And then at the end of the chapter, "I can live without love." How tragic!


Do you feel what is happening in the story is possible? / Could it really be that true love exists and is real?

I don't quite understand why Westly loves Buttercup. It seems like she was kind of awful to him for like 10 years or whatever? And then Buttercup decides she loves him because she's jealous that the countess seems interested in him? And she finally appreciates him inexplicably serving her for so long? Or they're both just so beautiful they're destined to fall in love? Idk, but I'm going along with it, since I have to go along with all the fantasy elements of the story anyways!