The Lady, Not The Tiger Essay, Research Paper

And just as the princess had imagined, inside the door was a beautiful young woman, the most wonderful lady in the entire kingdom. But for the man, the lady wasn’t so beautiful. For him there was only one beautiful woman in the kingdom, or in the entire world for that matter. And that lady was the princess. So as soon as he opened the door, the love that he felt attacked him like a stampede of raging buffalo. The man felt a strong guilt, because by opening the door on the right he would have to marry someone he didn’t love, and that was against his beliefs. In the other side of the arena, the princess’s love for the man had also taken complete control of her. She completely regretted the decision to point to the right and deep inside she was almost dying. So that was when her lover finally realized what it was that he had to do. He turned around abruptly, leaving the little chamber where the woman was in, and he turned to look at the princess. He screamed his final words to everyone, proving how strong his love was. “I love thou!” he said. “Please forgive me.” Then he started walking towards the other door. Deep down, the lover and the princess both knew it was better this way. So the whole arena watched that amazing turn around, as the fierce tiger tore the poor lover to shreds. The princess suffered and cried and almost died from the loss, and the semi-barbaric king realized his system of judging was unfair. He only realized this because this unjustness happened to somebody in his own family, but he would have never cared if this event never happened. So then the king changed his ways of judgment, and from then on it was in a court with a jury. Long years passed and eventually the princess died never again finding love in any other man from the kingdom. Her father’s unfair way of judgment made her lose her only true love, and she was the one that suffered for it. So as you see, love will be the answer to your problems.

ESSAY The Story “The Lady or The Tiger” by Frank Stockton is a short love story involving a man who loves the princess of the kingdom, and the people thinking it’s wrong. The system of trial is by opening one of two doors, one leading to marriage with a beautiful lady, or the other leading to your death by a fierce tiger, but the princess knows that the door to the right holds the lady, so she signals this to her lover. He leaves us with an unfinished story, so we (the readers) must conclude which of the two came out, but to my obvious conclusion, the lady comes out of the door, but then that leaves to a suicide by the lover’s part. Frank Stockton writes “Now matter how fair the affair turned out, the youth would be disposed of; and the king would take an aesthetic pleasure in watching the course of events, which would determine whether or not the young man had done wrong in allowing himself to love the princess.” This proves that the love that the princess and the lover had was bound to fail. No matter which door was opened, they would have never married, and they would have never been together. If the lover would have gone off with the lady, the princess’s heart would have been broken and she would have been wrecked, and so would have been the lover. Everything would have been to the king’s preference. And for those who have doubts in their head, of whether the lady actually came out, here’s something to rectify the matter. “She had done what no other person had done- she had possessed herself of the secret of the doors. She knew in which of the two rooms that lay behind those doors stood the cage of the tiger, with its open front, and in which waited the lady.” The princess had had dreams of this and more doubts about it than anyone else. When it came time to tell her lover what door to open, she knew he must open the one to the right. Her heart wanted the best for the lover, and wasn’t really thinking about her own preferences.