The Romance Archetype In "The Princess Bride"

The Princess Bride is a decent movie about a book being read to a sick young boy by his grandfather. The boy grows to love the story full of adventure, love, and heroics.

The romance archetype tends to follow this pattern:

1. The protagonist falls in love with another character.
2. There is an obstacle or two that prevents the two lovebirds from getting together.
3. The first attempt at romance is always thwarted, delayed, or put off.
4. Characters are often caught up in their own emotions or problems.
5. Lovers are tested by many trials or conflicts.
6. If the love is "forbidden", then the characters have to come to terms with what is preventing them from being together. To put this in simpler terms, they sort it out.
7. Lovers usually tend to get together at the end of the story.

How this occurs in The Princess Bride:

1. The two young adults, Westley and Buttercup, fall in love.
2. Being no more than a poor servant, Westley had no money for marriage. They still loved each other, but young Westley knew he had to do something.
3. Westley leaves Buttercup (thus delaying their love) to go out to sea and earn his reaches in faraway lands. However, Buttercup is soon told that Westley was attacked by pirates and killed.
4. Depressed and alone, Buttercup is trapped in her own emotions and wants only Westley. She is stricken with grief. To make matters worse, Prince Humperdinck picks her to become his wife, for he can choose anyone in the kingdom. Buttercup knows she will be forced into a loveless marriage, but accepts it at the time because her lover is dead.

There is a gap in the archetype here that is merely action. To sum it up briefly, Buttercup gets kidnapped and soon afterward Prince Humperdinck sets off after her. Her kidnappers meet a series of trials set up by "the man in black", who we find out is really Westley. The two attempt to escape Prince Humperdinck's oncoming posse.

5. Westley and Buttercup face many trials and all the way up to the end of the story. The two must traverse the fire swamp (plumes of flame, quicksand, and giant rats). When they exit the fire swap, Prince Humperdinck meets them with his posse and threatens Westley's life. When all is said and done, Westley gets captured and taken in for torture. Buttercup is taken in for torture too, seeing as she is supposed to marry Prince Humperdinck.This leaves escaping the castle as the final trial that the two must face.
6. One may argue that this step is or is not involved here. However, with the chronological order that I am currently explaining this in, the castle and the place of which they live is an obstacle that obstructs these lovers from getting together.
7. After raiding the castle with a few new friends, Westley and Buttercup are free and gladly pursue their relationship together. At the end of the movie, they kiss and literally ride off into the sunset on their white horses.