Mrs. Packletide's Tiger Literary Elements

Short story/cultural satire

London and India during the early 20th century

Third-person objective narration with a point-of-view that shifts from one character to another.

The mood is deceptively light considering the pretty awful and unpleasant activities being described. The tone is lightly ironic and satirical as the narrator undermines the pretensions of British high society.

This is actually a rather complex decision. Since she is the focus of the story, it would seem that Mrs. Packletide is clearly situated as the protagonist and her nemesis, Loona Bimberton, is the antagonist. As the story plays out, however, one can easily make an argument that Packletide remains the protagonist, but Louisa Mebbin is the actual antagonist. A more assertive interpretation, however, would switch those position and cast Louisa as the story’s real protagonist while Mrs. Packletide is unquestionably the antagonist.

The interpretation situating Louisa as the protagonist is made possible by identifying the major conflict in the story as that arriving as a result of the social and economic subjugation of Louisa by Mrs. Packletide.

The climax occurs when Louisa gets her revenge on Mrs. Packletide for her dismissive treatment of her paid companion.

The short, unadorned revelation that Mrs. Packletide’s under-appreciated paid companion, Louisa, speaks Hindustani foreshadows the revelation later on that there is much, much more to the eye than it seems about her character.

“Loona Bimberton would.” With those three words, Mrs. Packletide realizes that she is being blackmailed and the understated quality of Louisa’s observation is enough for her face to turn “an unbecoming shade of greenish white.”

Mrs. Packletide is quite early on compared to Nimrod, a Biblical allusion to great-grandson of Noah with a reputation for being a mighty hunter. Later, she will show up at a costume party dressed as the mythical figure of Diana, goddess of the hunt.

A subtle example of how imagery can be used in literature is provided in this story through the author’s precise and concerted use of oxymorons to hint at the revelation that Louisa is actually a complex contradiction rather than the simple and forthright person she is dismissed as being by Mrs. Packletide. Among the oxymorons which pepper the narrative: “elaborate carelessness,” “venerable herd-robber,” and “greenish-white.”

The term which literally describes the relationship of Louisa to Packletide is something of a paradox (and something of an oxymoron): “paid companion.”

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When the tiger is killed (or, in reality, dies of a heart attack) the native villagers make a great show of excitement “and their triumph and rejoicing found a ready echo in the heart of Mrs. Packletide.” This phrase becomes an example of metonymy in which the echoing in the heart of Mrs. Packletide is a symbolic stand-in for the profound excitement she feels about being able use her story of killing the tiger to one-up Loona Bimberton.

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