Class Division
First and foremost, the story is a thematic satire on the consequences of class division. Mrs. Packletide is engaged in a war with her rival for the attention and affection of the world of British socialites. As the story begins, Loona Bimberton has gained the upper hand courtesy of then (first decade of the 20th century) very rare ability to boast of having flown eleven miles in an airplane. Mrs. Packletide decides that the only logical way to top this and regain leverage is by killing a tiger and showing off its skins. This is still the way world works for those born into privilege who never have to worry about working and certainly don’t have to worry about money. The satirical slice comes courtesy of the story’s climax which reveals that while the privileges of birth confers a superior opportunity to enjoy life than that afforded the lower classes, it has no ability to endow them with superior intellect which still must be earned the old-fashioned way.
Feminine Competition
This is specifically a story about competition between females at a time when women’s rights were barely out of the Victorian Era. Even among those enjoying the benefit of high society, competition among females still not the same as that among men. The very first line lets the reader know that her intention to kill a tiger has nothing to do with bloodlust and the power to hunt and kill. Her only motivation for killing a tiger is to use as a prop at a society party; there is nothing at all of the needs to establish masculine attributes of power and status that would exist were the story about Mr. Packletide. The rivalry between Mrs. Packletide and Loona Bimberton manifest as a rather silly and asinine competition whereas the eventual revelation of a competition with her paid companion that Mrs. Packletide didn’t even realize was taking place looks far more—on Louisa’s side—as a competition steeped in testosterone. The socialite thinks she’s playing a high stakes game with Loona and it is only the rude awakening at the end which finally opens her eyes to what such sport actually looks like.
Appearances Are Deceiving
This theme is literally exploited by Mrs. Packletide for the purpose of re-establishing her leverage over Loona. Yes, she did travel to India and, yes, she did shoot a rifle and, yes, a tiger did die as a result. But the tiger was old and feeble and the bullet never hit it and the cause of death was attributed to heart attack at the shock of the sound of the rifle being fired. That is certainly not the story she tells as her socialite friends admire the skin of the tiger proudly displayed during society party she’s been planning since Loona stepped off the plane. What she doesn’t realize, however, is that she actually has been targeted for consumption by a ravenous tiger standing right in front of her all along. Her own sense of superiority and—far more importantly—her own acceptance of the inherent inferiority of the lower classes blinds her to reality and lures her into making decisions based on appearances that turn out to have been even more deceptive than the story she tells about her tiger hunt. The underestimation of others by those who overestimate themselves is a common thematic strain running throughout the work of Saki.
