The Lady or the Tiger? Essay Questions

What do you think was behind the door on the right? The lady or the tiger? Why?

It is likely that the door on the right was hiding the tiger. The narrator of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" places so much emphasis on the fact that the princess had barbaric tendencies. In fact, he spends so much time describing her barbarism that he never gets around to explaining what makes her civilized. For this reason, it seems likely that she will make the barbaric choice of killing her lover.

One of the themes the story explores is the corruptibility of absolute power, especially when invested in an unfit leader. Write about the development of this theme in Stockton's story, making sure to use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Every man who is sentenced to this bizarre ritual punishment faces the exact same consequences should the open door reveal the lady rather than the tiger: they will marry immediately whether or not the man is already married at the time or not. In the case of the young man in the story, this supposed "fairness" is corrupted by an outside agency. The king may have absolutely no idea that the lady chosen to stand behind one of the doors just so happens to be a potential romantic rival for the affections of the man his daughter loves, but that is beside the point. Whether attributable to the sinister motivation of the king or purely random chance in choosing the ideal beauty to stand as the alternative to the beast, the system is now corrupted in a way that makes this particular utilization of the punishment irrefutably unfair. Because of the pre-existing relationship between the lady behind the door, the princess, and the courtier, jealousy now enters the picture. The princess, having decided to find out what is behind each door, will now inevitably corrupt the abritrary nature of the system, guiding her lover to the tiger or the lady depending upon whether she is feeling jealousy more than love or love more than jealousy. Justice is either a system which is fair to all or fair to none, and though one can argue that this system of justice is lacking in all other aspects, it has been, up until this point, equally fair to all. That will no longer be the case now.

Devise a plan to save the relationship of the princess and her lover no matter which door he chooses. Write it in the same style as Stockton's prose and try to keep characters consistent as to how they appear in the story.

We find ourselves in the king's semi-barbaric kingdom, right at the instant that the princess gestures to the door at the right. What she alone knows, however, is that there is a secret plot in place to keep her lover alive and hers alone. She has had her favorite and most trusted attendant search far and wide for a lady who shares the princess's features. In the end, the attendant found a lady that looks so much like the princess that they could be twins. The plot is already in motion long before the courtier stepped into the arena. The princess will switch herself out for the lady and then reveal the truth after they are already wed. The king will have no choice but to accept the princess's marriage.