44 pages • 1 hour read
William GoldmanThe Princess Bride
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Festivities”
Goldman explains that he cut out the numerous engagement parties Buttercup and Humperdinck attend; during this time, Humperdinck becomes more affectionate and loving. The narrator returns to the aftermath of Westley’s battles. Inigo wakes and follows the rule for when the three criminals become separated: go back to the beginning. This leads him to the Thieves Quarter of Florin, where Vizzini first arranged their job. However, Inigo finds the Thieves Quarter intimidating because everyone is bigger and stronger than he is. He reflects on his failure to beat Westley (at which point Goldman jumps in to explain why he removed Inigo’s six-page monologue on failure) and then goes to the Thieves Quarter to wait for Vizzini. He begins drinking heavily.
Meanwhile, Fezzik also wakes and discovers Vizzini’s body. He panics and goes searching for Inigo. Elsewhere, Westley wakes in a cage; a man with albinism, the Zoo of Death’s caretaker, is tending to Westley’s wounds. Westley prepares himself for the pain yet to come.
The king’s death cuts Buttercup and Humperdinck’s celebrations short. Humperdinck struggles to adapt to his kingship, and Buttercup greets the people. One old woman insults her for abandoning Westley, and Buttercup wakes, realizing that she was only dreaming. Goldman reminisces about the first time he heard his father read that scene; he challenged his father over the accuracy of his reading. Offended, his father left, and Goldman spent the night believing Buttercup and Humperdinck had married. The next day, he was relieved to learn that Buttercup had only been dreaming. However, the experience changed him, as he realized that sometimes life doesn’t work out happily ever after.
Buttercup’s nightmares continue, becoming increasingly distressing. Finally, she goes to Humperdinck and tells him she can’t marry him after all. Humperdinck convinces Buttercup to make a deal: He will send his four fastest ships with a message to Westley, inviting him to come back. If he doesn’t, Buttercup will marry Humperdinck instead. After Buttercup leaves, Humperdinck reflects on his failed deal with Vizzini; now, to ensure a war with his neighboring country, he will have to kill Buttercup himself.
In the Zoo of Death, the Count tortures Westley while Humperdinck looks on. They contrive to make him confess to working for spies of Guilder. Westley pretends to be in agony but is actually removing his mind from his body by thinking about Buttercup. Later, Buttercup composes her letter to Westley, and Humperdinck becomes increasingly annoyed by her adoration. He tells his chief enforcer, Yellin, that soldiers from Guilder are preparing to kill his fiancée and asks him to imprison everyone in the Thieves Quarter. From far away, they hear the sound of an animal screaming as Count Rugen tests his new torture device, the Machine. Buttercup and Westley, unknowingly, think of their love for each other.
Count Rugen brings the Machine to Westley’s cage and begins assembling it, explaining his fascination with pain. He reveals that he knows of Westley’s charade and leaves the Machine by his side for him to dwell on in anticipation. The next day, Count Rugen explains that at each setting, the Machine sucks away one additional year of life. When it begins, Westley attempts to remove his mind again but cannot. The pain is too much for him, and he collapses.
Yellen and his brute squad arrest all the people living in the Thieves Quarter. The only man they’re unable to capture is Inigo, who is very drunk but still able to defend himself with his sword. Inigo discovers that Fezzik has become part of the brute squad, and together they escape. Fezzik takes care of Inigo as he recovers and tells him about Vizzini’s death and that he has found the six-fingered man. Inigo decides they need to find Westley so that he can help them infiltrate the castle and kill Count Rugen. As they approach the city, Westley lies beaten and broken.
Buttercup goes to see Humperdinck, who is meeting with Yellin. Humperdinck tells him to use all his resources to guard the castle and explains that he and Buttercup will soon be leaving for their honeymoon, accompanied by their entire fleet of ships. Buttercup reminds him that four of his ships have already departed with her letter, but his hesitation reveals that he never sent it. After Yellin leaves, Buttercup confronts Humperdinck and calls him a coward. He locks her in her room and goes to the Zoo of Death.
Goldman remembers his father skipping over the next scene. When questioned, his father explained that he didn’t want to read the rest of the chapter, but the young Goldman said he would just sneak out at night to find the book and read it himself. Goldman’s father relented and said that in the next scene, Westley dies. Goldman was devastated. After a long cry, he allowed his father to continue.
The narrative resumes with Humperdinck going to see Westley and pushing the Machine as high as it will go. Westley screams in unbearable agony, which people can hear all over the city. No one is certain what the sound could be, except Inigo; he recognizes the sound of “Ultimate Suffering” that he experienced during the death of his father and realizes that it must be Westley, as everyone else is celebrating the marriage. He and Fezzik make their way to the Zoo of Death. Below, Westley is dead. The man with albinism searches for a wheelbarrow with which to carry Westley’s body away and meets Inigo and Fezzik outside. Inigo threatens him into revealing where Westley is, and then Fezzik knocks the man unconscious. Fezzik is cautious about entering, but Inigo, emboldened with purpose, goes inside.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Wedding”
Inigo is concerned that the Zoo has been left unlocked; upon reflection, he decides it’s unlocked because the man with albinism didn’t have a chance to lock it behind him. Fezzik notices the door doesn’t have a lock at all but doesn’t want to make things worse. The narrator reveals that the door is a trick entrance to foil intruders by exposing them to various dangers; the safer entrance is hidden beneath a tree. Inigo and Fezzik descend underground and stave off their fear with rhymes. At the first level, the lights suddenly go off, and both feel a pressure around them as a giant snake tries to squeeze them to death. Fezzik isn’t strong enough to fight it off, but Inigo pushes him into action by saying they’re going to die before he can tell Fezzik all the rhymes he has to share with him. His energy renewed, Fezzik kills the snake. Inigo admits that he had no specific rhymes in mind, and Fezzik feels betrayed that Inigo lied to get them out of danger. On the next level, Inigo and Fezzik face a swarm of poisonous bats. Inigo forces Fezzik to lie down while he duels with the bats in complete darkness, spearing them on his sword. Fezzik forgives Inigo for his lie, saying it was a trick, which is different. As they approach the final level, Inigo becomes nervous because he can’t see any danger. He tells Fezzik this must mean it’s the worst level of all. Fezzik panics and crashes through the door, where a poisonous spider was lying in wait behind the handle. Inigo sees the spider and steps on it.
Inigo and Fezzik find Westley’s dead body, but Inigo refuses to accept defeat; they take him to Max, a local miracle man and healer. Max is retired since he was fired for failing to cure the king. They get Westley’s corpse to reveal that he needs to live to pursue true love. Max agrees to attempt a miracle that will reanimate Westley for an hour. Fezzik and Inigo go in search of ingredients—Goldman “cut” this on the grounds that their quest might remind readers too much of The Wizard of Oz—and when they return, Max creates a pill for Westley. Later, he realizes that he made a mistake and the pill will only work for 40 minutes.
In the castle, Humperdinck prepares Yellin for an attack from Guilder, but Yellin protests that he hasn’t heard of any planned attack. Humperdinck insists his sources are correct. Humiliated, Yellin resigns from his post, which forces Humperdinck to confess that the plot is a sham and he’s planning to murder Buttercup himself. He intends for Yellin to manage Guilder once it’s conquered. Yellin tells Humperdinck that his cousin, the man with albinism, is missing, and Humperdinck wonders if there may be a real plot after all.
Fezzik and Inigo hide Westley and feed him the pill, which partially revives him. They brief him on their plan to infiltrate the castle, stop the impending wedding, and kill Count Rugen. They concoct a plan. Meanwhile, Humperdinck moves the wedding forward by a half hour, but Buttercup is convinced Westley will come save her. As they approach the altar, they hear screaming outside, where Fezzik is masquerading as the Dread Pirate Roberts. Using a fireproof cloak, he descends in flames toward the soldiers, who scatter in terror.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Honeymoon”
Westley, Inigo, and Fezzik steal Yellin’s key and enter the castle, where they’re accosted by Count Rugen and his guards. Unbeknownst to them, Buttercup and Humperdinck have already married. The Count is astonished to see Westley alive. Inigo kills the guards and challenges Rugen, who runs away. Buttercup is accompanied to her room, where she plans to die by suicide. Inigo chases after the Count, and Fezzik leaves Westley for a moment to help Inigo get through a barricaded door. When he returns, Westley is gone.
Westley makes his way to Buttercup’s room, where they reunite despite Westley’s physical weakness. Prince Humperdinck finds them and challenges Westley to duel to the death. Westley counters by challenging him “[t]o the pain” (247). Meanwhile, Inigo pursues the Count; when he reaches him, however, the Count surprises him with a dagger to his chest. The Count finally recognizes Inigo, who remembers advice from a past teacher that helps him stand and continue fighting. Inigo returns the Count’s attack, including the scars on his face. When the Count is finally defeated, Inigo begins to cut out his heart, but the Count dies of fright before he completes it. In Buttercup’s room, Westley explains his proposition: He will cut off parts of Humperdinck’s body, leaving him alive to face the mockery and fear of others. Humperdinck surrenders, and Buttercup ties him to a chair.
Inigo arrives and reveals that Westley was bluffing because he has no strength. They prepare to fight their way out and then hear Fezzik’s voice outside; he has stolen the prince’s prized horses. The others jump out the window into Fezzik’s arms, and they ride to the gates where Yellin and his men are waiting. Buttercup claims her title as queen and commands them to attend to Humperdinck, and they run away. Goldman interjects to say that his father ended the novel there, but he later learned that the book ends on a cliffhanger with the friends all in trouble. He leaves it to the reader to decide what really happened.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
This section jumps ahead to when the wedding approaches and the friends reunite after their various defeats. Several dramatic climaxes happen within the internal story, but Chapter 6 features a smaller climax in the frame story when the fictional Goldman learns of Westley’s death. This becomes a major turning point for his character and a transition from childhood innocence to adulthood. In fact, all the central characters in this chapter go through a period of intense internal fear and doubt, which is sometimes referred to in literature as the “dark night of the soul” stage of a character’s journey. While Goldman struggles with the recalibration of his worldview, Buttercup faces her guilt and her impending marriage, Inigo struggles with the weight of his failure (leading to a soliloquy that Goldman “cut” from the original narrative, feeling it was too self-indulgent), Fezzik navigates his fear of being left alone, and Westley quite literally ends up dead. It is in the depths of each of these “dark nights” that the group comes together again and discovers their respective strengths.
In Chapter 7, Inigo and Fezzik enter the Zoo of Death, which the reader knows is full of dangers and pitfalls, including a false entrance. The novel uses dramatic irony to feed the reader information that the characters lack, heightening the tension and suspense as they descend into inevitable peril. In these scenes, each must stretch their abilities to their furthest possible potential, surpassing even what they exhibited in their fights with Westley. Fezzik discovers strength he didn’t know he had, and Inigo draws on all his training to win an impossible duel in the dark. In this quest-like narrative, the heroes don’t just arrive at their goals; they earn them through harrowing personal trials. While their friendship takes a brief knock due to Inigo’s lie, they quickly reunite. Once they find Westley, they’re forced to go on a second quest for miracle ingredients, which the fictional Goldman tells us further showcases their unique abilities.
In the final chapter, time becomes an essential motif; the narrator uses time stamps to mark the amount of time passed, the amount of time remaining, the amount of time Westley has still standing, and the amount of time Westley thinks he has still standing—all of which combine in another instance of dramatic irony. This chapter uses more frequent paragraph breaks to convey a sense of urgency. The main narrative’s climax arrives in two parts: when Westley finally faces Prince Humperdinck and challenges him “[t]o the pain” and when Inigo finally faces and defeats Count Rugen after more than 20 years (247). Both scenes are iconic in literature and in film and serve as cornerstones for the novel’s enduring legacy.
The novel closes with a note from the fictional Goldman, comparing the various endings to the story: the one his father read, the one Morgenstern wrote, and the one he believes in. He acknowledges that the heroes probably did face a lot of hardship in their lives, even though things ended up alright—projecting his own life’s victories and disappointments onto the page. The conclusion thus brings the theme of Happy Endings into sharp relief, tying it to the question of the novel’s genre. As Goldman admits, Morgenstern was a “satirist,” while his own father was a “romantic,” accounting for their differing ideas about how the story should end. Goldman, as a disappointed romantic, is somewhere in the middle. His “edits” to the novel have frequently attempted to shoehorn a satirical work into an adventure/romance genre, but he does present the work’s “original” ending to readers (along with his own thoughts). The frame that the real Goldman provides for the story therefore underscores its ambiguities; though frequently tongue-in-cheek, the novel as a whole also demonstrates real affection and even admiration for the kinds of stories it parodies.
