Princess Bride on the Pain of Love

I have always thought of Princess Bride as a movie about romantic love. However, when I saw it again a couple of days ago I realized that it is as much about pain as it is about love. The theme of pain reoccurs at multiple points in the movie, some of them funny, some of them profound. This shouldn't be surprising I guess because it is the pain of deep unfulfilled longing that keeps love potent.

During the reunion, the disguised Westley, the lover of the Princess Buttercup, taunts her loss of first love. The Princess shouts back at him, "Don't mock my love." Westley replies, "Life is pain... anyone who says differently is selling something." A decade before this reunion, Westley was Buttercup's first and only love. Westley then went on the "hero's journey", became a pirate and warrior of renown. He returns to Princess, wiser and mature fully accepting that the ability to push through pain is key to living in freedom.

Westley's philosophy of pain of life is put t the test by giant men and giant rats, not to mention the noble Count who is working on the "definitive" work on understanding the workings of pain by torturing Westley. It is only after having gone through this anointing of pain is his hero's journey complete and he is ready to challenge the King. When the King attempts to get ready for the duel saying, "To the death!," Westley replies saying, "To the pain!"

As surprised as I was by multiple references to pain in the movie, I realized that perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at all. Love and pain are two sides of the same coin. In fact the medieval writers of courtly love had a phrase for this, "the wound of love." Perhaps, it shouldn't be surprising that Princess Bride, which is setup in the medieval world, does not dichotomy pain from romantic love. In as much as modernity has tried to remove the pain part from romantic love, by gratifying the longings too quickly, it has sapped romantic love off its potency.