Heroes are brave, determined, courageous, and selfless people whop embark on a journey in order to fulfill a goal for the better good, every heroes journey is different. Some heroes fight dragons to save the castle and some like Westley steal the princess in order to protect her, Westley goes on a long journey where he faces many enemies and challenges but, he continues his journey to rescue his one true love. In The Princess Bride a novel by William Goldman, the character Westley is a hero because, he experiences all 6 stages of the heroic archetype structure including being called to action, crossing threshold, the road of tests, meeting the helpers, trip to the underworld, and the quest. The first stage of the archetypal structure is …show more content…

Bring the body'”(Goldman 307) they then take his body to Miracle Max who gives Inigo and Fezzik the magical pill to bring Westley back to life. Inigo and Fezzik then head back with still dead Westley and “Fezzik had been carrying the corpse the whole way”(Goldman 326). Without Westley's helpers he would have remained dead never to be reunited with his true love. The final Stage in the hero's journey is the quest, in Wetley's case this is after he comes back to life and he gets help from Inigo and Fezzik to break in the castle to rescue Buttercup from the evil Prince Humperdink. After gaining entrance to the castle and finding his true love Buttercup they escape the castle together with Inigo and Fezzik and they were riding “four great horses[...] toward (the) Florin Channel”(Goldman356) and lived happily ever after. This is the quest because his original goal was to save his true love Buttercup and while it all did not go as planned they ended up together and free. In The Princess Bride Westley has all the characteristics of a great hero and he follows the heroic archetypal. He goes to rescue his true love from kindnappers, he climbs the Cliffs of Insanity, he battles the kidnappers, he dies and comes back to life, he has helpers that saved his life and assist him on his quest, he breaks into the castle and rescues his true love Buttercup, and they all live happily ever