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Discussion Posts: The Princess Bride Post Category
Discussion Period: November 24 – November 30, 2008

Discussion Questions:

1. In which genre would you categorize this book and why?
2. Can you find anything significant in the names of the characters and countries? Does this in any way change the way we read the text?
3. How do you feel it has helped the reading of the story for Goldman to present it as an abridgment of S. Morgenstern’s original story? (In other words, what did you think of it, knowing that S. Morgenstern doesn’t really exist?) And why do you think Goldman might want to confuse readers about this point? Is that confusion necessary for the kind of story he is trying to tell?
4. Did Goldman’s “interruptions” (the bits in italics where he explains why he abridged certain parts) help or hinder the text as you read it?
5. Who, ultimately, is the hero/ine of this story, or is there one at all? Explain your answer.
6. When you got to the part with Westley and Buttercup’s reunion, did you already know that S. Morgenstern was a pseudonym, and thus knew that the reunion scene you saw there was the actual reunion scene? Did you want to immediately write in for Goldman’s reunion scene?
7. Goldman wrote the screenplay for the film version of The Princess Bride. There are many differences between the two. Identify as many as you can. Why do you think Goldman made these changes? With which of his choices do you agree? Disagree?
8. The Princess Bride can be thought of as two intertwining tales, one focusing on Westley and Buttercup, the other on the life of Goldman himself (or the fictional Goldman, at any rate). How do these two stories parallel and play off of each other?
9. Should writers draw a firm line between fact and fiction? If a writer puts himself into his story, does he have a moral obligation to be truthful about himself, or is he free to treat himself (and any other real-life person similarly inserted) as a fictional character?
10. When we first meet Inigo and Fezzik, they are working with Vizzini to kidnap Buttercup. Later, they become allies of Westley in his efforts to rescue her. What causes Inigo and Fezzik to change . . . or do they really change at all over the course of the novel?
11. In the introduction, Goldman writes: “But take the title words-’true love and high adventure’-I believed that once. I thought my life was going to follow that path. Prayed that it would. Obviously it didn’t, but I don’t think there’s high adventure left any more.” Later, he adds: “And true love you can forget about too.” Does the rest of the book offer support for these words, or does it refute them?
12. In another parenthetical aside from Goldman, he quotes the mother of one of his childhood friends, Edith Neisser, the author of “terrific books on how we screw up our children,” as telling him: “Life isn’t fair, Bill. We tell our children that it is, but it’s a terrible thing to do. It’s not only a lie, it’s a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it’s never going to be.” Do these words sum up the theme of the novel? Why or why not?