The Lady, or the Tiger?

Stockton leaves us hanging, ending on the following question: And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door,—the lady, or the tiger? We know the lady is much like her...

As is the case with many short stories, Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger?" does not have a single theme, but rather describes a human situation which one can investigate thematically in many...

The major conflict in the story occurs inside the daughter of the king. Her beloved is being forced to undergo a barbaric "trial" in which he must pick a door in the arena and either be eaten by a...

The young man has certain considerations: The princess does love him, but she has seen him talking with a fair maiden and has become jealous as a result. And, she does have barbarism coursing...

The young man made the serious mistake of falling in love with the king's daughter and engaging in a passionate love affair with her. Among his courtiers was a young man of that fineness of blood...

“The Lady, or the Tiger?” is a short story written by Frank R. Stockton in 1882. It takes place in a land where a king presides over court using chance to determine people's innocence or guilt....

In Stockton's celebrated short story "The Lady or the Tiger," the primary internal conflict is considered a Person vs. Self conflict. It concerns the semi-barbaric princess's difficult decision to...

So much can be read into the fact that the king is "semi-barbaric". He does know right from wrong, but he chooses to ignore it and go with with whatever he fancies. In a sense, this makes him,...

There are five main characters in Francis Richard Stockton's story "The Lady or the Tiger?" The story is written in the style of a parable or fairy tale, so the characters do not have individual...

The princess, in Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger," faces a dilemma as her lover is tried in her father's arena of justice. The young man has been accused of loving the princess....

Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady, or The Tiger?" is full of irony. Here are three examples of irony that are characteristic of the narrator's darkly comic tone. First of all, in the first...

The ambiguity of the ending of "The Lady or the Tiger?" is based entirely on the feelings and motivation of the "hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess." When her lover is in the arena and looks to...

The author shows the king is semi-barbaric by describing his system of "justice." Rather than using facts and evidence to determine whether a person is guilty or innocent of a crime, the king uses...

The tiger comes out of the door, but it only does so after the story ends. Within the time-frame of the story, the door opens, and the audience is left waiting to see what will emerge. The author...

There are two examples of situational irony in Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger." Situational irony is a contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually exists or...

The tone of the story is ironic. Irony is saying the opposite of what you really mean. In reality, Stockton (or, more precisely, his narrator) is appalled with this king and the way he dispenses...

The theme of this story revolves around the power of choice. The young man and the princess made a choice to become involved with one another. The King made a choice to avoid punishing the young...

Protagonist, by defintion, is the one character who the plot is centered upon. In this case, the young male villager serves as our protagonist because all of the story's action is oriented toward...

The rising action of a story is the events leading up to the most interesting point. In this story, the rising action is every event leading up to the fateful opening of the door. The king builds...

The purpose of this short story is to provoke a discussion about human nature: are people primarily motivated by good or by evil impulses? It is also meant to provoke a discussion about love: is...

Figurative language is any kind of language or figure of speech that does not employ the literal meaning. Certainly, author Frank R. Stockton uses figurative language in his narrative. Examples of...

The semi-barbaric king's approach to justice has little to do with the proven innocence or guilt of the accused. Because the accused party selects his own punishment when he chooses a door (and by...

The setting for this story is a large arena or amphitheater. It is so important that the narrator refers to it as an "agent of poetic justice:" This vast amphitheater, with its encircling...

In Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger," the princess must make a very difficult decision. The princess must decide to send her love to either meet his death at the jaws of a tiger...

The setting of the story is an unnamed, imaginary kingdom of ancient times, ruled by what the narrator calls tongue-in-cheek, a "semi-barbaric" king. In fact, the king, as the narrator's exposition...

In the arena, when the young man looks at the princess, she points to the right "without the slightest hesitation." Whether she points to the door with the fair maiden so he can be married and...

Stockton uses the semi-extended metaphor of heat and fire to describe the princess in "The Lady, or the Tiger?": Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the question depended upon...

In "The Lady, or the Tiger?" there really are only three major characters. The princess is the primary character, of course, but she and her actions are clearly influenced by the two characters...

The lady and the tiger are alike in that each is a living creature who represents poetic justice. They are alike in that their presence will have an impact that decisively changes the life of the...

The semi-barbaric princess fell in love with a young man who was beneath her social station in "The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank Stockton, and the young man ends up in the arena. In the arena, the...

The king and his daughter are both semi-barbaric. This means that they are passionate and strong-willed, and make sure that things are done their way. The king does what he wants and doesn’t ask...

The falling action of the story is actually the point at which the princess waves her hand to the right and the story ends. There is no resolution, the ending is ambiguous, meaning you choose what...

The beginning, or exposition, of Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger" establishes the mentality of the king of a mythical realm. He is immediately described as "semi-barbaric,"...

Frank Stockton's "The Lady, or the Tiger?" is a unique story in that it has no finished ending, and the narrative is so ironic. One of the ironies is the description of the king in the story's...

Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger" uses multiple narrative perspectives. The story opens with the third person narrator telling the story of a semi-barbaric king, his daughter, and her lover....

The climax of the story comes when the young lover in the arena goes to the door indicated by the princess and opens it. Naturally the reader would expect to see whether the lady or the tiger...

In a fictional kingdom in a past time period (probably the middle ages or earlier), a king has an arena built for criminals. Being only half-barbarian, the king allows criminals sentenced to the...

The young man is tried because he had the bad fortune of falling in love with the King's daughter. The king found out and decided the man must be tried. The young man is known in the story as the...

In his narrative Frank R. Stockton challenges his reader to guess the outcome, but he also challenges his reader through the use of irony. Indeed, the presentation of the king in the exposition...

I like this question a lot--much more interesting than the question that invariably gets asked about this tale, which is, as you can probably guess, which door the princess chooses. The key to the...

Here are some quotes that foreshadow the story's ending. The ending of the story is ambiguous. It is not entirely clear whether the princess chose the lady or the tiger. However, there are some...

The story begins with a thorough description of the semi-barbaric king. We learn that his ideas were "large, florid, and untrammeled" and that he was wont to consult no one but himself on their...

In the "semi-barbaric kingdom" created by Frank Stockton in "The Lady or the Tiger?" a young man who did not have royal blood (a commoner) dared to do what no one else had done--he loved the...

"The Lady, or the Tiger?" is set in a kingdom whose king had determined to turn justice into a spectacle determined solely by chance. He has built an arena in which accused criminals are faced with...

The princess used her power, influence, and force of character to find out who was behind the door. In this kingdom in the “very olden time” in which the story takes place, a semi-barbaric king is...

No, I would say this system is not fair at all. First of all, each subject has only been "accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest the king." This does not mean that the person has...

The main idea of "The Lady or the Tiger?" surrounds the choice presented by Frank Stockton. His story examines the motives of the human heart, when propelled by the conflicting emotions of desire...

The young man’s conflict in “The Lady or the Tiger” is an external conflict. The young man is accused of the crime of loving the king’s daughter. This is the external conflict of man vs. man....

Interestingly, when Frank R. Stockton's short story "The Lady, or the Tiger?" first appeared in the Century magazine in 1882, it caused quite a sensation with its unfinished plot, and debate were...

The king in Frank R. Stockton's short story "The Lady, or the Tiger?" is considered "semi-barbaric." Usually the king also represents the type of people who live in the kingdom. He's a typical...