The Princess Bride

by

William Goldman

The Princess Bride: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Goldman says that according to Professor Bongiorno, this chapter represents the pinnacle of Morgenstern's “satiric genius.” It describes the first 30 days of wedding festivities, but Goldman says that the only important bits are that Prince Humperdinck starts being nice to Buttercup, relations with Guilder sour, the people idolize Buttercup more than ever, and Humperdinck is finally seen as a hero (up to this point, the populace has resented him for hunting and not governing). At the end of 30 days, Morgenstern offers three flashbacks to explain what happened to Westley, Inigo, and Fezzik.
Again, when Goldman implies that he doesn't agree with Professor Bongiorno's assessment and instead finds it boring and excessive, Goldman is aligning himself with the reader and with elements of storytelling that make for a compelling adventure. This allows Goldman to remind the reader that though he's a part of the publishing industry, he's on the reader's side and wants to give them the best tale he can.
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Inigo comes to and realizes he's tied up. He uses his feet to pull his sword close and cuts himself free. Now, he must go back to the beginning, which is what Vizzini told him to do if things went wrong. Inigo even made up a rhyme for Fezzik to remember this. However, Inigo isn't excited to go back to the Thieves Quarter in Florin City without Fezzik, as he's a small man and looks easy to rob. He also wonders if he's not a great fencer anymore. Goldman cuts in and says that what follows is a six-page soliloquy on the nature of fleeting glory, as Morgenstern's book before The Princess Bride had been a critical failure. Goldman also notes that Robert Browning's first book of poems didn't sell at all. Returning to the narrative, Inigo returns to the Thieves Quarter. He buys brandy, sits on a stoop, and waits for Vizzini.
Inigo's inner monologue shows that he and Fezzik are close and caring friends. Goldman's aside functions to once again place him alongside other writers and make it clear that they're all part of the industry. Robert Browning was a famous 19th-century British playwright and poet.
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Fezzik comes to and can remember that Inigo made up a rhyme for him so that he could remember what he was supposed to do, but he can't remember the rhyme. He runs after Vizzini and finds Vizzini asleep. A bit later, Fezzik realizes Vizzini is dead. He panics suddenly and runs back to the cliff to find Inigo, but Inigo isn't there. Fezzik runs for an hour, yelling for Inigo, until he finds a cave outside a village. He rhymes to himself and hides there until the local children discover him.
Though Fezzik is a bit slow on the uptake, it's important to note that he is able to figure out that Vizzini is dead. Further, the fact that Fezzik thinks that Vizzini is just asleep and wants to leave him to rest for a while shows how caring Fezzik is, which reminds the reader that Fezzik is more of a gentle giant than he is a fighter.
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Westley wakes up chained in a huge cage. He can hear animal sounds and after a minute, the albino appears. The albino tends to Westley's wounds, feeds him, and refuses to answer questions about who he is, where they are, or if he's going to die. Westley reasons that he's probably going to be killed, but given that Prince Humperdinck and Count Rugen are healing him first, they're going to torture him. Westley starts to prepare his brain so that they won’t be able to break him, but Morgenstern tells the reader that, “they broke him anyway.”
Morgenstern's decision to tell the reader that Rugen and Humperdinck break Westley helps to create a sense of dread and reminds the reader yet again that this book isn't fair: Westley isn't going to fare well, even though he's a hero. This allows readers to understand that this is more like real life than it could be, given that in most fairytales, the hero always wins.
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After 30 days of partying, Buttercup starts to worry that she won't survive the next 60 days of partying. Unfortunately, King Lotharon starts to go downhill and dies. Prince Humperdinck becomes king 45 days before the wedding and suddenly becomes wise as he studies how to rule. He and Buttercup marry quietly because he's so busy. Again, Buttercup requests to walk among the people. Everyone cheers until one old woman starts to boo. Soldiers descend on the woman but Buttercup requests that they bring the woman to her. The woman explains that Buttercup abandoned her true love for money. Buttercup wakes up screaming and has nightmares for several nights.
By not immediately framing this as a dream, Morgenstern keeps his readers on their toes and reminds them that anything can happen and the “wrong” things might just happen. This moment also allows Goldman to underhandedly tell aspiring authors to stick with their true loves and stand up for their work, like he does.
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Goldman interrupts and says that this is one of his biggest memories of Goldman's father reading him the book: he knew it couldn't be right that Prince Humperdinck and Buttercup got married. This upset Goldman's father and he ended their reading session for the night. Goldman spent the night feeling so betrayed that Buttercup married Humperdinck and was thrilled the next day when he learned it was a dream. However, he also felt unsettled about what happened, and this didn't resolve until he was a teenager and became friends with the author Edith Neisser. At one point, Edith told Goldman that life isn't fair—a notion that rocked Goldman's world.
Here, young Goldman has a distinct sense of what is and is not supposed to happen in an adventure tale, and having that upended is disturbing for him. This then suggests that this moment of realizing that life isn't fair and that things don't happen the way they're “supposed to” is one of the most important coming of age moments for a young person.
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Because of this, Goldman now believes that the entire point of The Princess Bride is that life isn't fair. To prove that life's not fair, he says that Jason will always be fat and unsatisfied, and though Helen will always be brilliant, his marriage to her will always be loveless. Addressing young readers, Goldman says that this book is great, but there's a lot of disturbing stuff coming up—including the wrong people dying—and that's because life isn't fair.
This passage suggests that, as a character, Goldman’s dismissiveness towards his own wife and son are fueled by his pessimistic—though realistic—notion that life isn’t fair.
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Back in the story, Buttercup dreams that she gives birth to a baby girl. The baby tells Buttercup that her milk is sour because she betrayed Westley. The baby turns to dust and Buttercup wakes up screaming. The next night, Buttercup dreams that she gives birth to a boy, but the baby refuses to see her: he's afraid she's going to kill him like she killed Westley. The night after, Buttercup stays awake all night until dawn, when she dreams of watching Buttercup's mother give birth to her. The midwife declares that baby Buttercup is beautiful, but has no heart, and suggests that they get rid of her. Buttercup's father and mother strangle baby Buttercup and Buttercup wakes up gasping.
Again, all of these dreams can be read as symbolic representations of what happens when a writer like Goldman gives up their vision for their project for the sake of making money or achieving success, the very things that Goldman refused to do both with The Princess Bride book (and later with the screenplay). With this, he suggests that just as Buttercup has an obligation to reaffirm her love for Westley, writers have a responsibility to stand up for the heart of their projects.
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With 50 days until her wedding, Buttercup knocks on Prince Humperdinck's door and tells him that she made a mistake: she loves Westley and knows that she has to let Humperdinck kill her rather than marry her. Stunned, Humperdinck kneels next to her and says that he doesn't want to stand in her way. He does point out that because of Buttercup's behavior, Westley might not want to marry her anymore. Buttercup hasn't thought of this before. Humperdinck suggests that if Westley wants to marry her, so be it; if he doesn't, then Buttercup should marry him as planned. He tells her to write Westley a letter and he'll send four ships with them to find the Dread Pirate Roberts's ships to deliver them.
With what the reader knows of Prince Humperdinck, it's reasonable to assume that he's not going to send these letters and instead, wants to manipulate Buttercup into thinking that he cares about her and wants her to be happy. This suggests that he's more like Vizzini than previous scenes have let on, as he's clearly conniving and has no interest in helping her. Buttercup's honesty, however, suggests that she's becoming more like Fezzik and wants to be seen as a caring person.
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Prince Humperdinck kisses Buttercup's cheek and sends her away to write her letter. He decides he's going to seem very fond of her in the next two months because he wants all of Florin to feel sad and angry when she dies at the hands of a “Guilderian soldier” on their wedding night—then, they'll all support going to war with Guilder. He can see now that he was wrong to hire Vizzini to kill her. Now, fortunately, the people love her even more than they did before her capture. Humperdinck just has to get over his squeamishness about killing a woman, as he plans to kill her himself.
While the novel offers no real reason as to why Prince Humperdinck wants to start this war with Guilder, it presumably has something to do with wanting to be powerful and in charge of more of Europe. This does, however, prove that Humperdinck is willing to compromise his ethics in order to win, something that Goldman suggests (through his championing of artists standing up for their work) is a very bad thing to do.
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Count Rugen begins to torture Westley that night while Prince Humperdinck watches. Rugen studies pain carefully and so he's thrilled to have this opportunity. He begins by having Humperdinck ask Westley about his experiences in captivity and then, asks who in Guilder hired him to kidnap Buttercup. Westley says truthfully that he didn't kidnap Buttercup, so Count Rugen lights Westley's hands on fire. After a while, Rugen puts out the fire and he and Humperdinck leave. They discuss that Westley is telling the truth and wonder if the physical pain will be worse than knowing he's telling the truth and not being released.
Notice that Morgenstern makes it very clear that Count Rugen studies pain; it's something he wants to learn about and interact with in a scientific context. This reminds the reader that Count Rugen is another character capable of cleverness and planning. Of course, he is also cruelly torturing Westley, putting the story’s hero through trials that will ultimately make him stronger.
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Morgenstern notes that Westley isn't suffering at all, as he knows how to “take his mind away” and think of Buttercup. As the albino bandages Westley's hands, he encourages Westley to tell the truth, as the Machine is almost ready. Westley notes that they're clearly going to kill him anyway.
Westley's ability to think of Buttercup instead of the pain at hand underlines both his mental fortitude and immense love for her.
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When he gets back to the castle from torturing Westley, Prince Humperdinck finds Buttercup waiting for him. She needs help writing her letter to Westley, which in its first draft just says that Buttercup will kill herself if he doesn't come back. Humperdinck offers to help. Buttercup tells him about how good Westley is at everything and mentions Westley's fear of Spinning Ticks. It takes them four hours to finish the letter. The next day, Count Rugen uses Spinning Ticks on Westley. Perplexingly for Humperdinck, Rugen doesn't seem happy about their progress. Humperdinck starts to get tired of how much Buttercup talks about Westley. Westley tries to hide his smiles, thinks of Buttercup, and knows he's going to get revenge.
The way that Prince Humperdinck interacts with Buttercup here shows that he knows how to weaponize kindness in a way that lets him extract information that's useful for him and for Count Rugen. Again, Westley is presented as nearly perfect—Buttercup’s praise has been shown thus far in the novel, as he has beaten his foes with skill, strength, wit, and now grit. This suggests that he will triumph in the end.
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Prince Humperdinck starts to struggle under all the pressure to rule, start a war, and look like he's in love with Buttercup. King Lotharon continues to cling to life, which complicates things. Twelve days before the wedding, Humperdinck summons the Chief of All Enforcement, Yellin, to talk to him about his plans. He tells Yellin that he's heard from spies that Guilderian men have been infiltrating the Thieves Quarter and plan to kidnap Buttercup. Yellin hasn't heard anything of the sort, but he grudgingly agrees to form a brute squad and jail everyone in the Thieves Quarter until after the wedding.
The “Chief of All Enforcement” is a rather ridiculous title that underlines the silliness of the story at hand, as it sounds more like something a child would make up than an actual position. By telling Yellin what the reader is led to assume are lies, Prince Humperdinck tests Yellin's own ability to swallow and interpret information he seems to know isn't true. With this, Humperdinck positions loyalty and intelligence opposite each other and suggests that in this case, being loyal to him means choosing to not engage thoughtfully with this information.
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As Yellin turns to leave, he and everyone else in Florin City hears a haunting scream. Nobody knows what it is (Morgenstern tells the reader that it's a wild dog in the Machine) but it's horrifying. The sound finally dies when Count Rugen sees that the dog is dead. He races to Prince Humperdinck and tells him that the Machine works. Slowly, Humperdinck thinks about his answer. He knows he can't just send Rugen away, as he's his most trusted underling and he needs his skills, but he's too busy to participate in torturing Westley with the Machine. Rugen isn't at all upset and agrees to torture Westley without supervision.
Once again, by letting the reader in early on what's happening with the Machine, Morgenstern continues to quietly tell the reader that bad things are going to happen to the wrong people. This has the effect of also helping the reader to feel more anxious and involved with the story, which, in Goldman's assessment, makes the experience of reading more enjoyable.
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Buttercup knocks on the door and asks if there's any news from Westley. Count Rugen assures her that Westley will come for her. He asks if such a powerful man is capable of crying, and Buttercup answers that he'd cry if a loved one dies. Buttercup kneels by her bed and begs Westley to come for her. Westley spends his time doing much the same thing, as he thinks of Buttercup when he takes his mind away. Because of this, he's not too worried when Count Rugen arrives with the Machine. Rugen excitedly assembles the Machine in front of Westley and then explains that the scream Westley heard earlier was the scream of a wild dog. He says that he writes for scholarly journals and is writing a book on pain.
Count Rugen is again presented as a curious yet cruel character who uses his intelligences for nefarious ends. As expected, however, Westley doesn't take the Machine seriously because he's too confident in his own abilities. Because he's stopped taking in information that might help him, he's unprepared to deal with this challenge.
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Count Rugen explains that life is pain and that anticipation intensifies pain. For this reason, Rugen says he's going to leave the Machine overnight for Westley to look at. Westley groans, though he feels giggly because the machine looks so silly. Rugen tells Westley that he'll destroy him with the Machine and says he knows that Westley is taking his brain away during their torture sessions. Westley suddenly feels anxious as Rugen leaves. The albino appears and offers to kill Westley, but Westley assures the albino that he'll be fine.
This exchange speaks to the power of storytelling and of creating suspense. In a basic sense, Rugen is telling Westley a story that completely changes Westley's perception of this silly looking machine and shows him how poorly prepared he is for it.
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The next evening, Westley tells Count Rugen that he didn't sleep well. Rugen records this and explains that he's going to record Westley's reactions because his scientific experiments on pain might get him the immortality he's after. With this, Rugen begins to set up the Machine by affixing a number of soft cups to Westley's skin with glue. He covers Westley's skin and then puts tiny cups on the insides of Westley's ears, nose, mouth, and under his eyelids. He then explains that he'll set the dial and they'll be on their way. Westley thinks of stroking Buttercup's hair but once the Machine is on, the pain is so intense that he can't take his brain away. After a minute, Rugen turns off the machine and explains that he just sucked away a year of Westley's life. Westley cries and Rugen records this.
Though Rugen doesn't say so outright, his comment that his experiments will bring him immortality speaks to the power of being a part of the publishing industry, even if one (like Goldman) despises it. Through publishing and sharing stories, a person can become immortal as their words will continue to impact people long after their death. Meanwhile, the fact that even Buttercup cannot distract Westley underscores how truly terrible this Machine must be.
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Five days before the wedding, Yellin waits with his brute squad to listen to Prince Humperdinck speak. Count Rugen is unusually preoccupied, as he's trying to figure out how best to suck away the remaining 30 years of Westley's life with the Machine. Humperdinck addresses the brute squad and asks them to empty the Thieves Quarter. Most criminals don't resist as they know they'll be let out in a few days, but a few criminals are afraid that this will be the end. Three days before the wedding, there are only a few criminals left and Yellin is tired and confused, as none of the arrested criminals were from Guilder.
Yellin's mental state speaks to the difficulty of having to prioritize loyalty over doing what one believes is correct—he's learning mostly that Prince Humperdinck is paranoid and wrong; it's doing nothing to increase his loyalty to his employer. This suggests that had Inigo and Fezzik remained with Vizzini, they too may have found themselves in such a situation, suggesting that circumstances like these are untenable.
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Yellin goes to Falkbridge's Alehouse with two brutes. Falkbridge is a powerful man and bribes Yellin to keep himself out of jail. Falkbridge lets Yellin in and says that he's not going to let Yellin take him to jail after 20 years of bribery. Yellin signals to a brute, who clubs Falkbridge across the neck and puts him in the wagon. Yellin sends his two brutes to get “the fencer with the brandy.” As the brutes come around the corner, they hear Inigo yelling that he's not going to wait for Vizzini forever. The smaller brute tries to talk Inigo into following him and as he does, the other brute—Fezzik—rhymes everything that Inigo says. Inigo realizes it's Fezzik and staggers into his arms. Fezzik hits the brute, puts him in the wagon, and covers him up.
Fezzik and Inigo's heartwarming reunion reminds the reader of how good of friends the two were and apparently, still are. Even in Inigo's drunken stupor, he's still able to identify his friend and despite the month apart, Fezzik is still willing to do what's necessary to protect his Inigo. Importantly, when Fezzik dispatches this brute to save Inigo, he's thinking for himself—though he's not necessarily aware he's doing so. This reminds the reader that Fezzik is capable, he's just not confident in his abilities.
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Fezzik puts Inigo in Falkbridge's bed, takes the wagon to the entrance of the Thieves' Quarter for a boot count, and when he's released, he climbs back into the Thieves Quarter and goes to Inigo. Inigo passes out when Fezzik says that Vizzini is dead. Fezzik makes Inigo some tea and a snack and mentions that the six-fingered man, Count Rugen, is in Florin City. Inigo faints again. Fezzik draws a hot bath and holds Inigo in it. He then draws an icy bath and alternates hot water, cold water, and snacks until he's steamed the brandy out of Inigo's body. By midafternoon, Inigo looks almost normal.
Again, Fezzik is clearly competent at caring for Inigo and expelling the brandy from Inigo's body (though the manner in which he does so is rather fantastical, underlining the silly, lighthearted nature of the novel overall). The simple fact that he's able to make this plan and carry it out without a hitch points to Fezzik's ability to plan, though it is worth noting that what he's doing here is caring for someone else. He'll later reveal that he's not confident in his abilities to plan and carry out attacks, which suggests that he's more comfortable performing friendship than violence.
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Fezzik tells Inigo that he came to Florin City because he wanted to see Buttercup get married and has been making good money on the brute squad. They discuss that Westley somehow killed Vizzini, probably with poison, and then Fezzik explains that Count Rugen is in the castle with Prince Humperdinck, sealed inside in case of another attack by Guilder. Inigo tries to figure out if they could take the 20 guards in front of the castle, but he suddenly starts to cry. He says he needs a planner like Vizzini. Fezzik cries too and says that he's also stupid. Inigo declares that they need Westley since he's clearly strong and smart. Fezzik mentions that Westley is a sailor for the Dread Pirate Roberts, but Inigo reasons that Westley must be Roberts given his skillset.
Given Fezzik's behavior over the last day, it's clear that he is able to plan and carry out things. Further, though Inigo is concerned that he's not smart enough to figure out what to do, all the things that he deduces make logical sense and are correct. This is certainly more than could be said for Vizzini, who decided that Westley was a simple fisherman to make himself feel better. This then offers the reader an indication that Inigo is a more reliable hero than even Inigo thinks is possible.
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Fezzik points out that either way, Westley/Roberts is gone because Prince Humperdinck banished pirates for fear of another attack or kidnapping attempt by Guilder. Inigo reminds Fezzik that Guilder isn't guilty; they kidnapped Buttercup, and he believes that Prince Humperdinck hired Vizzini to do so. He also notes that Count Rugen is probably lying about Westley's whereabouts since he's a known killer. Inigo begins to lead Fezzik through the streets and tells him his thoughts: they need to find Westley, as he's smart enough to get him to Count Rugen. Inigo reasons that since Humperdinck has a horrible temper, Westley is probably in Florin City being tortured. Fezzik and Inigo begin their search with a day to go before the wedding. Deep underground, Westley cries: 20 years of his life are gone.
While Inigo may be right that Fezzik's memory isn't great, it remains clear that Inigo isn't as bad at planning and deducing things as he thinks he is. Again, everything that he decides must be true is correct, which suggests that over the years, Inigo has learned enough to get him through situations like this—it's just likely that through his abuse, Vizzini made Inigo think that he was incapable of doing any of this thinking effectively.
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At dusk, Buttercup goes to see Prince Humperdinck. She knocks several times and hears him yelling inside. He finally lets her in. Yellin is inside, and is upset with Humperdinck: there's still no evidence that Guilder is trying to attack Florin, yet Humperdinck talks of nothing else. Humperdinck tells Yellin that to protect Buttercup, he wants 100 men stationed outside the castle. He says he's going to cancel the 500th anniversary festivities and the whole armada is going to escort him and Buttercup to their honeymoon destination. At this, Buttercup corrects him that every ship but four will escort them, but she knows from his look that he's been lying to her.
Just as Morgenstern demonstrated with Inigo that Inigo is more capable of critical thought than he believed he was, here, Morgenstern shows that Buttercup is also capable of putting two and two together.
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After Yellin leaves, Buttercup tells Prince Humperdinck to stop lying to her, as she knows the ships were never sent to find Westley. She says that she knows Westley will come for her and calls Humperdinck a coward. Buttercup says that Humperdinck hunts just to prove to himself that he's not weak, and she insists that he'll never be able to catch Westley once she runs away with him. Humperdinck screams at Buttercup, throws her into her room, and runs for the Zoo of Death.
Buttercup's insight, which is likely at least somewhat correct, suggests that her true intelligence now lies in her ability to understand how people function emotionally. She also fully believes in Westley's ability to come find her, which indicates that she still believes he's a loyal partner to her.
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Goldman cuts in and says that at this point, Goldman's father stopped reading and pretended that what happens next didn't happen. He tried to make young Goldman agree to skipping over the rest of the chapter, but Goldman refused. Goldman's father then told him that Prince Humperdinck kills Westley next, and, in the end, Humperdinck lives. This shook Goldman to the core and he cried profusely.
By telling the reader outright what happens, Goldman is able to prepare the reader to fully understand that life isn't fair—in the real world, the “wrong people” win or live all the time. With this, he offers readers another steppingstone to use as they come of age through reading his abridgement.
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Back in the story, Humperdinck runs to the Zoo of Death and startles Count Rugen when he bursts in. He shouts at Westley that Buttercup somehow still loves him. He pushes the dial on the machine all the way and Westley's death scream begins immediately. Everyone in Florin hears it, though only Inigo knows that it's the sound of “Ultimate Suffering” and is likely coming from Westley. Fezzik pushes through the crowd so he and Inigo can follow the sound.
The fact that Inigo can identify the scream and who's screaming speaks to his knowledge of emotions and his ability to think logically, again offering more evidence that Vizzini was wrong when he insisted that he (Vizzini) was the smartest one of the bunch. Fezzik does as Inigo asks so he can show Inigo how much he cares for him and wants to support him in this quest.
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Back in the fifth level of the Zoo of Death, Count Rugen declares Westley dead. Prince Humperdinck leaves. Annoyed that he lost his interesting subject, Rugen tells the albino to deal with the body and then leaves. The albino decides to burn the body behind the castle and goes upstairs to fetch a wheelbarrow. After he digs the wheelbarrow out, the albino stops suddenly at the sight of Inigo. Inigo asks for the man in black and learns that he's on the fifth level. Fezzik knocks out the albino and Inigo leads Fezzik down into the Zoo of Death, entering at the wrong door.
Inigo and Fezzik are proving to be true allies for Westley, underscoring their innate goodness; they had been used and abused by Vizzini, and, now free from his criminal influence, can come into their own and be the heroes they were always meant to be.
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