"Stand your ground, men, stand your ground!"
Those are the opening words of the climax of Princess Bride- the wedding scene. What it's all been building up to. It's the beginning of a farce. Almost immediately afterward Westley invalidates the ceremony because Buttercup didn't love the prince and never had sex with him- she never said "I do". He tells her she did NOT inadvertently marry herself off, that what happened didn't count. Interestingly, the prince wasn't particularly interested in being married to her, either. He just wanted a martyr to base a war upon. The wedding of the princess bride doesn't fit into the American concept of marriage as a consensual agreement or our concept of the legal ceremony- they skipped all the romantic bits! It was just about power and hurting people! That's not what a wedding is supposed to be about!
In that movie Love is the most important thing in life. Never mind practicalities and promises and whatnot- True Love is something you should abandon everything for and damn the consequences. Interestingly, I think the book serves as a satire of modern romantic ideals and it's the movie where Hollywood switches everything around to uphold this cultural norm.
"True love is the greatest thing in the world".
Do we really believe that, or are we more likely to agree with this xkcd cartoon?
Points of disagreement: He was being held captive during your year of mourning (yes, it was ONE YEAR, during which he was constantly reminded that he could be killed at any moment), and the point of being a dread pirate is that you DON'T kill people- you intimidate through reputation, like most of the pirates of the golden age (and yes, there really was a dread pirate roberts, though they didn't call him that and so far as we know it really was just one person).
Maybe I'm defensive because the movie made me want to be Westley, and I think Buttercup is an idiot. Maybe I just desperately want to believe in the idea of true love.
Maybe the moral of the story is that marriage is a farce and love is moronic.
Satire is supposed to be cynical, I suppose.
And yes, I do have some personal baggage on this subject, it would be ridiculous to deny that. I don't want marriage to be a farce or love to be moronic, I don't want to think of Westley as a dick. Still, I think it's good to ponder the meanings behind the campy classic.
Hope I'm not intruding here - but since it's linked on your facebook I'm assuming it's ok. I have actually been doing a lot of thinking about marriage lately - as happy as I am, it has occurred to me that my parents, my extended family, and even some friends are taking me and Dante as a unit so much more seriously now. And since I've been trying to earn that sort of respect for years, it definitely hurts that the event/status of marriage is more important to them than me saying that I am together with the person who can make me happiest. If that makes any sense.
ReplyDeleteYou are most certainly not intruding (everything on the internet is public, in my way of thinking).
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you feel that way- because I believe I've heard that before, from other long-term couples who married. It bothers me how much a badge of legitimacy marriage is- how unwilling people are to see a relationship as something real and meaningful and concrete without that legal status.