The Lady or the Tiger?

             Passionate love and jealousy can make people do things that might seem unthinkable. The story of Frank Stockton, "The Lady or the Tiger?" is about the love between two young people, a princess and a young man, which is considered a crime. Everything starts with the disclosure of the affairs between these two people by a barbaric-king, who then with the purpose of disposing of the youth, sends him to a specially created trial, to administer his so-called "Poetic Justice". Ultimately, the fate of the youth, whether to die or to be awarded a beautiful lady, lies in the hands of the princess. The author of the story left the readers to decide whether there is a tiger or a lady behind the chosen door, and prompts the audience to choose one of these alternatives. However, if one thinks carefully, there might have been a third alternative, and in my opinion the optimal and fairest one: behind both doors lie a dead tiger and a dead lady (this is of course being done by the princess). The idea behind this alternative is that if the doors revealed dead bodies, assuming that in their religion then believed in supernatural powers, this might have provided good justification to the king and people, that this particular youth is the chosen one. Seeing this, I think that the king would have allowed his daughter to marry the youth.
             There are several reasons why I believe that the doors contained a dead tiger and a dead lady. Reading the story we find out that love between these two was strong, which is depicted by the following quotation: "She loved him with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong"(p.195). We also see that "love affair moved on happily for months"(p.195), and with this description of their passionate love we can say with certainty that there is a lot of probability that the princess would do anything to make her lover stay alive.
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The Lady or the Tiger?. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 20:03, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/27388.html