Frank R. Stockton's The Lady Or The Tiger?

Imagine this: the love of your life is on trial and you have to pick their destiny. You can choose for them to marry someone else, or be killed by a savage beast. In Frank R. Stockton’s short story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” there was a semi-barbaric king. The king had a daughter, who he loved more than anything. The princess was seeing someone, but it was kept a secret. When the king discovered this love affair, the youth was thrown in jail as a result. For his trial, he had to go in an arena and pick between two doors. One door held a ferocious tiger, that would kill him for sure. The other door held a beautiful lady that the youth would marry, but the princess hated her. The princess tells the youth which door to pick, but the story ends without the author saying if she picked the door with the lady or the door with the tiger. Because the princess hated the

Stockton describes the princess’ father as a man, “... who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action the rich growth of his barbaric idealism.” (Stockton 4) The king was semi-barbaric. Barbaric means to be severely cruel or brutal. Since her own father was barbaric, the princess inherited some of his vulgarism and brutality. The princess had barbarism running through her veins, so she wouldn’t have felt guilt like everyone else, making it easier for her to pick the tiger. Furthermore, Stockton states, “This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own.” (Stockton 9) This quote shows even more how the princess is just like her father, wicked and ruthless. The words “fervent” and “imperious” show that the princess will do what she wants. The word choice the author uses shows that the princess is evil and foul. She might have felt it was simpler that her lover die, rather than he marry another woman that she