“The Princess Bride” by William Goldman (post 3): The hero demonstrates self-hypnosis eye-roll, and probably switches personalities, to cope with torture.

Westley, the hero, has been captured by the evil Prince and the sadistic Count, who torture him:

“The Count set fire to Westley’s hands. Nothing permanent or disabling; he just dipped Westley’s hands in oil and brought a candle close enough to set things bubbling…

However, “Westley suffered not at all throughout. His screaming was totally a performance to please them; he had been practicing his defenses for a month now, and was more than ready. The minute the Count brought the candle close, Westley raised his eyes to the ceiling, dropped his eyelids over them, and in a state of deep and steady concentration, he took his brain away” (1, pp. 226-227).

Readers of Edgar Allan Poe will recognize what Westley did with his eyes. In his fictional short story, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (1845), Poes describes an experiment of hypnotizing Mr. Valdemar, who is about to die of tuberculosis, in the hope that hypnosis will prolong Mr. Valdemar’s life. During the induction of hypnosis (mesmerism), Poe notes “the glassy roll of the eyes” of Mr. Valdemar. Later, in bringing Valdemar out of hypnosis, Poe notes the “descent of the iris.”

In 1972, psychiatrist Herbert Spiegel, M.D., introduced “An Eye-Roll Test of Hypnotizability” (2, 3), which claimed to assess hypnotizability by how well people could roll their eyes upward (like Westley).

Where did William Goldman get this realistic detail of hypnosis—the eye-roll—which he used in his description of Westley’s self-hypnosis? From Poe? From psychiatric literature on hypnosis? From observation of, or personal experience with, going into trance? In past posts, I have quoted various fiction writers as saying they go into a trance when they write.

Finally, consider, that at the very same time Westley “took his brain away,” he was putting on a performance of screaming to fool his torturers. How can a person, simultaneously, take his brain away and be present to put on a performance? Evidently, the regular Westley personality went inside (“away”), while an alternate personality, who was impervious to pain, came out, took over, and put on a performance.

1. William Goldman. The Princess Bride [1973]. New York, Harvest/Harcourt, 2007

2. The Spiegel Eye Roll Test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vERxtmCz-K8

3. Herbert Spiegel. “An Eye-Roll Test of Hypnotizability” [1972]. http://www.drherbertspiegel.com/_html/pdfs/EyeRollTestForHypnotizability.pdf