Examples Of Archetypes In The Princess Bride

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In the princess bride, we find many archetypes, including situational character, and symbolic archetypes. They all play a very important role in the story's plot, setting, and characters. First, we encounter our hero, which is a character archetype; he is a very kindhearted Farmer boy named Westley. He sets the story of struggling against all the evil that approaches him to restore his beloved Buttercup and to free her from the Prince, Humperdinck. His quest is to restore his beloved back to him. This requires a task to be performed in a long journey in which he overcomes serious obstacles, including the giant, the prince, Inigo Montoya and his death and other hopeless moments to reach his quest. Through all these moments, he never gives up but …show more content…

As of that, the prince decides to kill him to prevent him from marrying his beloved which causes the death and rebirth archetype because after a while Inigo Montoya hears him scream and he calls it the torture of all time like the one he sounded like when his father's dead. Therefore, he goes and tries to save him, but it's too late. Eventually, they find the miracle man who offers them a potion to make Wesley alive again or his rebirth. All of these are examples fit the situational archetypes category.

Next, character archetypes follow. Westley also plays the role of the initiates, heroes that have to undergo training and ceremony before undertaking the quest. His initiation begins when he stays with the pirates and learns more about sword fighting and bravery. The devil figure is Prince Humperdinck, he tries to make the princess love him, but he fails and at the end kills her true love. He separated them apart, but he came back for the princess. Buttercup represents the white goddess, a good, beautiful maiden with blonde hair and an ideal marriage partner. Westley falls in love with her from the beginning of the story and they become lovers until the end.

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