The Significant Role of The Tiger and The Lady in The Fate of The People in The Lady, Or The Tiger, a Short Story by Frank R. Stockton

Introduction

In the “Lady or the Tiger,” one barbaric king comes up with a form of punishment offered to his subjects. Whenever an individual dare to love the king’s daughter, he is forced to choose between two breathtaking options. The person will appear between two closed doors; one with a tiger behind and the other door with the king’s daughter. The ultimate fate of the individual, therefore, becomes unknown to him. This essay looks at various proponents outlined in the story about both the tiger and the lady. Both of this plays significant roles in determining the fate of each person extricated of various forms of crimes. The king had this inventive strategy to generate a high sense of punishment to his subjects.

The lady

The lady is considered to be the king’s daughter. Any individual to win the lady had to risk his life by selecting one of the two closed doors. It was a fateful decision that most courtiers found a lot of problem making an appropriate decision about it. In one occasion, one of the courtiers falls in love with the king’s daughter and tries as much as he could to win her. This aspect frustrates the king who opts to punish the courtier tremendously (Rooke and Kaplan 22). The lady is an important figure in the life of the king. In fact, the king could do anything for anyone never to win the lady’s love. This is the main reason the king had to place a very had policy of winning her. The king is much offended after courtiers try to do a shortcut and winning the lady. This proponent brings tight invention of risking one’s life over the lady. The princes who also becomes interested in winning the lady looks for an alternative that could help him.

The tiger

The tiger represented the ultimate ending of an individual’s life. Whenever a person had to encounter the tiger in the course of making a choice, there was no other way out. The tiger could end the person’s life. This was a form of punishment in which individuals decided their ending by making the decisions. Sometimes, it was luck but which came with a sacrifice of ones’ life (Abrams 4). This form of punishment made a lot of criminals not to have other alternative but to choose either to life or to end their lives. The options behind the doors remained to be completely unknown to them as they could not comprehend exactly what they were going to encounter. The king could not make any other reversal to whatever the option made by a courtier. This was a final punishment that was rendered to all criminals.

Conclusion

In summary, the fate of the lover remained unknown and completely hidden among the two closed doors. It was a matter of life and death, and no one could even get a hint of what lies behind the closed doors; was is a tiger or the lady. People found this form of punishment to be a life sentence which was apparently taking place alongside luck. It was not easy to establish the best way that could help the victims overcome the punishment. In fact, those executed found no way out that could make them reverse the situation. Instead, they had to try their luck and see if it was worth living.