Student Question
How did the princess discover the secret of the doors?
Quick answer:
The princess learns the secret of the doors in "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by using her power, wealth, and influence to discover what was waiting behind each door. Stockton writes, "But gold, and the power of a woman's will, had brought the secret to the princess." The princess pays off certain people to attain the confidential information and also learns the identity of the maiden.
After the king discovers that his daughter is having an affair with a handsome courtier, he sentences the the young man to stand trial in the arena, where he will have the opportunity to determine his own fate by choosing between two doors. Behind one door waits a ferocious tiger, and behind the other stands a beautiful maiden. From the moment her father gives the decree, the princess is determined to find out what is behind each door and uses all her power, influence, and force to discover the secret. Stockton describes how the princess learns the secret behind each door by writing,
But gold, and the power of a woman's will, had brought the secret to the princess.
The "semi-barbaric" princess uses all of her resources to attain the information by paying certain people to give it to her. The narrator does not specifically describe her process or elaborate...
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on whom exactly she pays. However, one could infer that the princess more than likely pays someone working at the arena, the king's personal assistant, the tiger's handler, or anyone in charge of preparing the event.
The princess not only learns which door would hold the tiger, but also discovers the identity of the fair maiden standing behind the other door. Stockton describes the maiden as one of the "fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court," and the princess absolutely hates her. Moments before the courtier chooses a door, the princess subtly instructs him to choose the door on his right. The story's ending is left open to interpretation, and readers must decide for themselves what is behind the door that the courtier opens.
The author, Frank Stockton, really doesn't tell us how she learns the secret, but he does give us a couple of clues. First of all, she is a princess and with that title comes money. She is also used to getting what she wants, and it would not be hard for her to bribe a lowly door keeper with money (Stockton says she uses "gold" to discover the secret). Stockton also says that she uses her "woman's will" to gain the secret. This can be read many different ways--she was either very assertive and demanding or she was good at flirting with the door keeper. She is a barbaric princess, so a little arm twisting isn't out of the realm of possibility. She could also use her feminine charms to make the door keeper submit to her wishes. However she found out the secret of the doors, the real secret is which door she signals her lover to choose.