The Lady Or The Tiger Analysis

Love and jealousy are two of the absolute strongest emotions. The power that these feelings behold is of immense value, often engendering us to make decisions that would not be made from a neutral standpoint. In the brilliant short story, "The Lady, or the Tiger," Frank R. Stockton tells the tale of a "semibarbaric king" (p. 12), his magnanimous arena, and his daughter, the princess, just as zealous as he. Nonetheless, this grandiose arena is not one built "to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions," but to do what is even greater: to determine justice in front of many. Within the arena, there were two doors, one of which a ferocious tiger would come

There are factors upon factors that make true love purer and more romantic than any other form of love, and they are not to be taken lightly. Simply stated, the young man and princess’ relationship was not true love, but experimentation and discovery. If the princess unconditionally loved this man, she would feel the need to intervene during his trial. She would not experience a desire, particularly a forceful desire, to be envious and suspicious on the young man’s behalf, but she was. “With all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors,” Stockton notes on p.17, “she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind the silent door,” and the princess absolutely did, but she still attended the sadistic trial. The author further explains the princess’ harsh temperament on page 17, remarking that “had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature it is probable that lady would not have been there.” Notwithstanding the ardor the King’s daughter felt around her lover, their relationship was merely a short-lived infatuation due to the statements above and