Today I read the short story The Lady Or the Tiger. I really enjoyed reading it, and the outcome was surprising in an unusual way. The story is suspenseful, but cannot claim to be solely suspense because the outcome is never revealed. Readers will continue to argue and debate about what happens for days on end. Set in a semi-barbaric society, a man dares to love the princess. His love requited, the two were happy until the king finds out, which is when he is put on trial. Normally, the princess would not hesitate to make the choice that saves his life . . . except that the outcome of choosing to let him die might be less torturous than choosing to let him live. The author never reveals what the princess has chosen, explaining only her thoughts and her fears. I would rate it 9.9/10. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of ten who doesn’t mind not being told the ‘right’ answer.
The below is a spoiler, but also an explanation of my thinking.
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This is a spoiler.
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This is a spoiler.
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The author explained that there were two doors. One would lead to a savage, hungry tiger and one that would lead to a beautiful, fair lady around his age. The accused would have to pick a door; the former would mean that he would be quickly devoured, while if he picked the latter, he would immediately be wed with the lady. The princess, through bribery, learned which door would lead to what, and, more importantly, who the lady was. She showed her lover which door to pick, but the question is whether she would have him devoured or sent to her rival.
If the lady had been any other than the princess’s rival, the choice would have been immediately obvious. She wouldn’t have wanted him to be devoured. But the princess did hate that lady, and she didn’t want them to be married. For her, it was a question of the lesser evil. For him, it was a simple matter of survival.
The man, of course, had no idea that the princess hated the lady. He would certainly have assumed that she had pointed him towards the lady, and therefore chose the right door without hesitation. But the princess had another issue to think about, which is why I think the man should have chosen the other door.
My decision is based on a simple premise. That if the princess truly loved the man, she should have loved him enough to let him go, even to her most hated enemy. If she pointed to the tiger, then the man should have chosen the lady, because it would be unfair for him to get killed just because of the princess’s selfishness. But if she pointed to the lady, the man should have chosen to get killed, because she would have loved him enough to let him survive even with another lady, even with her most hated rival, and so would not have deserved the pain of watching him with someone else.
The man, of course, could not have known this, so trusting the princess was, in his case, the correct choice. Very little can be conveyed in a motion, especially if it had been well thought out. I would not blame him for choosing the door she pointed in. But for the princess, it would have been better if he had chosen the other door.
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