Fairytales and Growing Up Theme Analysis

One of the points that Goldman makes to the reader over and over again is that life isn't fair. He suggests in one of his asides during The Princess Bride that this is one of the most important lessons that children must learn, and that one of the best ways to learn this lesson is through exposure to stories like The Princess Bride, in which the “right” or expected thing doesn't happen. By drawing on classic fairytale and adventure story tropes that are predicated on the reader believing that the “good guys” will prevail and live “happily ever after,” and then making a point to upend all of them and show how silly some of those tropes can be, Goldman attempts to guide his younger readers towards a more nuanced and mature, yet decidedly hopeful, view of fairytales and their role in the coming-of-age process. The novel subverts conventions of its genre to impart the lesson that growing up essentially means accepting that life isn’t fair.

When Goldman's father first begins reading The Princess Bride to him, one of the things that the young Goldman struggles with is reconciling what he believes should happen, based on how he thinks stories must unfold, with what actually does happen in the book. Remembering his own childhood challenges with the story, Goldman includes in his “abridgement” asides to readers in which he shares advice to help them effectively engage with the text and take the “proper” lessons away from it. For example, when Buttercup tries to escape Vizzini, Inigo, and Fezzik by diving into Florin Channel, Goldman insists that storytelling logic dictates that the sharks can't eat Buttercup so early in the novel; such a thing would make the story unsatisfactory and far too short. Later, when Westley dies, Goldman prefaces the death scene by reminding young readers specifically that life isn't fair. When compared to his aside about Buttercup and the sharks, Goldman suggests that a hero can die, but only when the author feels that the hero's story is close enough to the end. Though Westley does come back to life thanks to a “resurrection pill,” Goldman seems to suggest to readers that they must be prepared for anything that life throws at them, while also reminding readers that fairytales like The Princess Bride present an idealized, fantastical view of life wherein anything is possible.

However “helpful” Goldman believes his asides might be, they—along with the patently ridiculous things that happen to the novel's heroes—also rob the story of much of its dramatic tension. Explaining that sharks don't eat Buttercup turns a potentially dramatic moment into just another event that, in the grand scheme of the novel, becomes simply a means to show Buttercup being uncharacteristically cunning and brave. Further, by introducing so many absurd creatures, objects, and events—from bloodthirsty Rodents of Unusual Size and “beeping” sharks, to the Machine that makes even Westley giggle—and situating the story in an unspecified time period that's “before stew” but “after Paris,” Goldman suggests that it's nearly impossible to take anything in the story seriously. Goldman undercuts his own assertion that the book imparts valuable life lessons by keeping things very silly, and in doing so attempts to poke fun at overly moralistic literature; at the same time, the book seems to suggest that part of growing up is being able to react to the situations at hand not with dread but humor, and to recognize the mechanisms of storytelling at work.

In other ways, by not allowing Westley and Buttercup a conventional happy ending, Morgenstern and Goldman go against the grain of fairytale logic in a way that may feel unfair to readers who, after Westley's experience with the resurrection pill, might expect something deservedly idyllic for the novel's put-upon heroes. Goldman tells the reader that in his mind, the novel has two endings. In one, Westley, Buttercup, Fezzik, and Inigo ride away into the sunset, while in the other, they still ride away—this time pursued by their evil adversary Prince Humperdinck, who's intent on killing Buttercup; during their flight Inigo and Westley's health declines while Buttercup's horse throws a shoe. Goldman explains that his father read him the first possible ending, which he explains points to his father being a romantic who believed fully in fairytales ending happily, no matter how unlikely a real happy ending may seem. Goldman, however, says that he's a realist and, were the story to continue, he thinks that Westley and Buttercup would argue like any normal couple and be constantly on the run from Prince Humperdinck.

With this, Goldman proposes that fairytales are capable of mirroring real life far better than his father wanted to admit, while also making it clear how ridiculous those stories can be by introducing things that even his own characters laugh at, like the Machine. By illustrating how he himself came of age through his engagement with the story's ending—in that while he bought his father's idealistic ending as a child, as an adult, he craves a more complex and realistic resolution (or lack thereof)—Goldman clearly illustrates the power of stories like his. Ridiculous or otherwise, such tales can reveal different things to readers as they grow up and approach stories from different points in their lives. Ultimately, the book suggests that being able to develop these different readings—to see literature as both silly and meaningful, ridiculous and true, terrifying and hilarious—is the true marker of coming of age.