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Prove your answer by citing supporting details from the story.

This is a very interesting question.  The concept of who or what comes through the door the Courtier chooses is a statement of the reader's attitude on life.  An optimist might say the lady comes through the door, and his life will be saved.  The pessimist might say the tiger comes through the door and rips the young man to pieces.

The belief in fate is important in this question because if the tiger comes through the door one might believe that the young man is getting what he deserves.  He broke the law of common sense by being arrogant enough to believe he could be involved with the Princess.

Maybe fate smiles on the young man and takes a swipe at the King for his arrogance in thinking he can be the judge of everyone under his rule and the executioner.  By placing a tiger behind one of those doors he is condoning execution based on a "flip of the corn."

I believe the young man opened the door to the tiger because the Princess is as mean and vindictive as her father.  The Courtier had flirted with other women, and this particular woman is recognized by the Princess.  I feel that she would rather the tiger kill him than have that beautiful woman marry him.

"The princess perceives the lady as a rival for the young man's love, and thus she is an object of the princess's hatred and jealousy."

This question is best answered by examining the details of the story as presented by the author.  The young man chooses to go to the door that the princess pointed him towards.  This begs the question:  is the Princess the type of woman who loves enough to let her lover marry another?  or is she jealous enough to prefer that her lover die than be with another?

The father of this princess is described by the narrator as "semi-barbaric" - implying that this kingdom and this time period is the same.  To be "semi-barbaric" is to still live by laws of a more animalistic nature.  This is shown through the final "trial".  Rather than using a jury of peers, and imprisonment, the king uses a violent arena and a game of natural selection (the man versus fate and versus tiger). 

Stockton makes it clear that this king's daughter is similar to him.  In the following quote, she is described as barbaric herself:

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...loved him with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong.

However, she only has "enough of barbarism" to make her passion strong.  So... is it enough for her to assist in murder of her beloved?  Or is her love "warm and strong" enough to make her sacrifice to let her lover live?

Also, consider that she is rebellious enough to see this man behind her father's back.  Does this mean that she is different enough from her barbaric father to not encourage the same punishments?  Remember, too, that she also rebelled enough to find out which door the lady was behind.

There is clearly an argument here on both sides - you decide which answer you think is best, and then use the details to your purpose.

I agree with the first post...it really all depends on how you see life. For me, I think it depends on what day it is. I want to hope that it is the Lady, but I often find myself looking for that tiger.  I think the story, written in 1882 is certainly a precursor to the Modernist movement, as this type of literature expressed the unknowable nature of the future. For modernist writers, life could not be tied up in a neat bow. Frank Stocton, the author, played up this aspect in his "sequel" to the story called "The Discourager of Hesitancy," in which not only did he not answer the initial question, he also posed another one.