UNIT II, LESSON 9: Focusing

on the Conflict in a Short Story

The Lady, or the Tiger?
Week 13, Nov. 15-19
Skills in Focus:
 Use context clues to arrive at the meaning of words.
 Recognize and use synonyms and antonyms.
 Look up the meaning of idioms and figure of speech and use them
correctly.
 Focus on the conflict in a story
 Organize an informal debate and participate in it
 Use semicolons in sentences
 Write a letter to the author one’s reaction to the story
 Write a monologue
 Write an ending for an open-ended story
Sharing Prior Knowledge
from the title, “The Lady, or the Tiger?” what do you think is the story
about? What is a Lady? What is possibly the connection between the
lady and the tiger, a wild animal? Write your prediction in your note
book. Compare this with what the story is about after reading it. How
close was your prediction?
Essential Question
In matters of the heart, what choices are the most difficult to make?
About the Author
Frank Stockton –
Building Word Power for Vocabulary Improvement
Literary Selection
The Lady, or the Tiger
By Frank Stockton
Introduction
“The Lady, or the Tiger?” is a short story by Frank Stockton that was
first published in The Century magazine in 1882. It is Stockton most
famous work, and it has been a popular choice for inclusion in short
story analogies, since its first publication. The story first introduces a
“semi-barbaric” king who has implemented a unique form of justice
within his kingdom: if the king believes that someone has committed a
crime, they are placed in arena and force to choose blindly between two
identical doors. Behind one door is a beautiful lady who will promptly
become the accused’s wife; behind the other door is a tiger. “The Lady,
or the Tiger?” is notable for its departure from the traditional structure of
narrative fiction. Though the events of the story are presented in an
almost fairy-tale-like manner, the ending proposes a thought experiment,
asking readers to decide the outcome of the story based on information
provided.
Plot Summary
In a distant land there lives a “semi-barbaric” king who is ruled equally
by his hereditary barbarism and his civilized ideals. He also possesses a
fanciful nature, and his authority allows him to transform any given
whim into reality. The King delights in nothing more than putting an end
to anything that he deems disruptive or unpleasant. As a result, he has
combined his fanciful nature and his ideals into a public arena, a concept
that he borrowed from more “refine” countries.
The king arena is unique, however, in that it is not designed purely for
exhibition of valor or brutality.
Instead, it is an instrument of “poetic justice” by which accused criminals
are tried without biased input of a judge or jury. When someone has
committed a crime worthy of the king’s attention, the king issues a public
notice regarding the date and time of the accused’s trial. The people are
invited to assemble at the arena as spectators to the judgement.
The trial begins when the accused enters the arena. However, rather
than presenting evidence or appealing to the public for mercy and
understanding, the alleged criminal must instead make a choice. He is
presented with two identical doors to choose between; behind one door is
a vicious tiger, ready to maul the accused as punishment for his apparent
guilt; behind the other door is a woman, to whom the prisoner is
instantaneously married as a reward for his apparent innocence. In the
eyes of the King, this method of administering justice is completely fair,
because it removes human bias from the equation. Rather than having
their faith decided by a judge,
Criminals are instead given the ability to decide their own fate, as blind
as that choice maybe.
The arena is a popular fixture among the King’s subject, who are
never sure whether they will be witnessing a gruesome death or
dubiously desirable wedding. Furthermore, the method’s apparent
fairness satisfies the public sense of justice, as the accused is ultimately
responsible for their own fate.
The King has a daughter, whom he loves dearly. His daughter falls in
love with a handsome young courtier, and she loves the courtier with all
the passion that her barbaric ancestry demands. When the king discover
the affair, he takes decisive actions and puts the courtier on trial in the
arena. It is common knowledge that the courtier is guilty of the crime
that he is accused of, but the king refuses to allow this fact to derail the
tribunal. In the King’s view, the trial in the arena will solve the
Problem regardless of which door is chosen; either the courtier is mauled
by the tiger and killed, or he is married to another woman and therefore
unable to continue courting the princess.
The princess, upon hearing that her lover will be tried in the arena, sets
out to discover which door will hold which outcome. Using her power and
influence within the court, she successfully obtains the information.
However, she also discovers the identity of the lady, should the courtier
choose the correct door. The lady is a beautiful young woman who the
princess believes admire the young courtier. Furthermore, the princess
suspect that the courtier has, on occasion, admired the lady as well. The
princess, who possesses all of the “savage blood” of her father, hates the
lady for daring to admire the princess’s own lover.
When the day of the trial arrives, the young courtier looks to the
princess and instantly perceives that she has succeeded in learning what
lies behind each door.
She quickly motions to the door to the right, and the courtier
unflinchingly follows her direction, However, rather than providing a
conclusion to the story, Stockton instead ask readers to decide what came
out of the chosen door.
The princess motivation are outlined: her initial quest to uncover the
secret of the doors was motivated by her desire to spare her lover from
the jaws of the tiger. The horrific vision of him being mauled by a beast
haunts her nightmares. However, after learning the identity of the lady,
her dreams equally haunted by vision of her lover and the lady being
happily wed. She questions whether it maybe better for her lover to die
instantly at the hands of the tiger, so that he might wait for her in the
afterlife. Ultimately, the princess knows that she has lost her lover, and
now she must decide to whom she will lose him: the lady. Or the tiger?
Analysis
Analysis
The King is like god in his power, but not a benevolent one. He takes
great pleasure in making the crooked straight because he enjoys more
than anything exerting his will heroically not only that, but he also
enjoys the drama of conflict that he ultimately wins, which anticipates
the pleasures he takes in his arena.
Ironically, the king’s Latin neighbors are just as barbaric as he is,
evidenced by their gladiatorial contest and religious persecution. The
narrator is also ironic in calling the arena an agent of poetic justice, for
there is no such thing as justice determined by chance. One might call it
“impartial punishment”, or “blind punishment,” but not justice. The
King’s “semi” barbarity involves the fact that he has created a system
that even he himself cannot alter once it is set in motion; the “barbarity”
remains in that the “justice” is no justice at all, but rather an enjoyment
of the infliction of arbitrary rules, and possibly pain and death upon a
person.
Theme of the story:
The Theme of this story revolves around the power of choice. The
young man and the princess made a choice to become involve with one
another. The King made a choice to avoid punishing the young man by
allowing the young man to choose his own punishment (in a way)
What is the point of view of the lady or the tiger? The story is told in
third person omniscient point of view. This means that the narrator
knows the thoughts and actions of all the characters. The narrator sets the
story in a fairy-tale mood__ “In the very olden time ”_and then addresses
the reader directly, in the first person mode, after the young man makes
his choice.
The conclusion
The princess hates the woman behind the door. In the story, it says the
princess chose the “right door,” which could be interpreted as the
“correct” door, or the morally correct choice. The princess loves the man,
and cannot bare the thought of him being eaten by alive by the tiger.
Symbolism
The doors represent fate, the tiger represents death and punishment,
the lady symbolizes innocence and reward (it’s not her fault she’s lovely
and the princess is jealous)