The Princess Bride Westley Character Analysis

The Princess Bride contains some of the most evil villains, the most entertaining heroes, and the most Sicilian Sicilians to ever exist. However, the hero of the story, Westley, lacks the qualities of an actual hero. Through the story, he proves time and time again that his actions only benefit Westley, and anyone else who gains anything from him improves accidentally. Westley, however, starts out the story as merely a background character. Buttercup, the most beautiful woman in the entire world and main character in the beginning, “preferred above all else really, was to ride her horse and taunt the farmboy.” This shows a few important things about Westley. First, it shows that people taunt him and that he lacks either the willpower or the physical power to stop them, as otherwise he would have kept her from taunting him or at least tried to do so. The author feels

To justify this fighting and occasional killing of others, the villains must be evil. Westley’s main enemy in the novel, the prince, forced Westley’s love interest to marry him while Westley busied himself by ships; Westley has only this reason for fighting him. When the prince talks to Buttercup about marrying him, he does threaten her with death, but Westley does not know of this. The prince actually gives the most accurate description of himself in this scene, “I am your prince and I’m not that bad how could you rather be dead than married to me?” Even though the prince does do evil things later in the story, Westley didn’t know about the vast majority of his plans until after he starts plotting against him.

Westley did some truly terrible things throughout The Princess Bride. Even though he did some of them in the name of love, these actions make him lack true goodness and heroism. However, he doesn’t have the qualities required of an evil individual either. The Dread Pirate Roberts, unchallenged ruler of the seas, fits no standard set of morals in