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Frank Stockton’s “The Lady, or the Tiger” is a 19th-century short story that leaves the reader with a sense of speculation. The story introduces the audience to a kingdom that bears a resemblance to the Roman Empire. There rules a king that is said to be “semi-barbaric.” Alongside the king, is his daughter, a princess who is just as “semi-barbaric” as her father. The princess has fallen in love with a man, one who is stunning and brave. The gentleman has returned her feelings of affection with his own. By doing so, the man has committed the kingdom’s greatest offense; loving the princess. The young man is tried within the “king’s arena”. In this trial, the accused must choose between one of two doors. Behind one door lies a starved and mighty lion that will mercilessly maul the offender. Through the other door is one of the kingdom’s most beautiful and fair maidens, which will be wed to the accused. On the day of the trial, the princess has found out which door holds the lion, and which holds the fair maiden. As the accused man walks out and looks at his lovely princess, she signals him towards a door that he opens. The story ends there, leaving the question; did the door hold the lady or the tiger? Although love is a beautiful force that brings the desire for the happiness of one’s significant other, love can also become a twisted obsession that ultimately leads the princess to execute her lover.
Love is one of the strongest emotions that an individual can feel. It is an irrefutable fact that the princess felt admiration toward her lover. Through this singular concept, individuals conclude that it would be impossible for the princess to willingly end the life of her most beloved. Stockton writes, “How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited for the cruel fangs of the tiger!” (Lines 166-168). The princess displays a scene of distraught as she imagines her beloved losing his life right before her eyes. Through this act, it becomes obvious how the princess wouldn’t be able to bear witness to the brutal mauling of her lover. However, the emphasis on what she believes in starts to shift. When something dear to someone is dragged out of their possession, there tends to be a dark feeling developing inside them; jealousy. As the princess continuously ponders through the nights leading up to the event, she starts to think of someone else stealing her lover from her. Eventually, she develops the mentality that if she can’t have him, no one can. Although love is a very powerful emotion, it can lead to something more terrifying and great, obsession.
Obsession becomes the reason why the princess will lead her lover to death. When introducing the princess, the story 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.”(Lines 72-73). Through this detail, it can be inferred that the daughter is nearly just like her father in terms of personality and ideology. The king has been described as a man that wishes “to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places.” (Line 10). If the king is considered a man who wishes for everything to go the way he desires, the princess can also be. When something goes wrong and becomes “crooked”, and it can’t be fixed, it gets destroyed. This analogy can be tied to the incident with the princess and her lover. She can no longer be together with whom she loves, and due to her controlling and wishful attitude, she wants no one else to have him. As a result, she will crush her lover and the maiden he may receive by leading him to death. Another thought that the princess held to display her decision to murder the significant other was her belief in eternal togetherness. The princess at a point has thought to herself, “Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaric futurity” (Lines 180-181). As a result of the princess’ controlling and selfish nature, she considers the idea of letting her lover suffer in exchange for their connection to the afterlife. Rather than letting the lover live his life with another woman and supposedly fall in love with the new maiden, the princess believes it would be better for him to suffer an agonizing death. The princess most likely believes that the man would still hold her dear to his heart if he was to die right away instead of being wed to a maiden, displaying her selfish nature and rationale behind letting the man die. Finally, the last component of the obsession held by the princess is hatred. It states, “But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman… in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned!” (Lines 169-179). Through the evolution of the princess’s feelings from love to obsession, she developed a mentality of what’s mine can only be mine. The feeling of giving up her loved one to someone else gives the princess far more agony compared to his demise. The feeling of detest that the princess holds towards the woman behind the door far outweighs any feelings of remorse or sympathy towards the man. The emphasis within this section shifts from how the princess won’t be able to live with herself when her beloved dies; to her feeling worse pain and agony by seeing him leave her for another woman.
From feelings ranging from jealousy to fury, the emotion of obsession and love overwhelms the princess. Altering her perspective as a damsel who losing her lover, to someone who is being robbed of their most prized possession. Allegedly, leading to the death of an innocent man that only wished for love.
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