Frank R. Stockton · 1882 · 3 min video
The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton: Summary and Ending Explained
Two doors. Behind one, a bride. Behind the other, a hungry tiger. The only person who knows which is which is the woman who loves him, and hates the bride.
Summary of the original story
A "semi-barbaric" king has his own idea of justice. An accused man is brought into a great public arena and must open one of two identical doors. Behind one is a hungry tiger, which tears him to pieces: guilty. Behind the other is a lady, whom he must marry on the spot: innocent. Nobody knows which door is which. Chance decides.
The king has a daughter as fiery as he is. She falls in love with a young courtier of low rank, handsome and brave. When the king discovers the affair, the young man is thrown into prison and his trial in the arena is set.
Using gold and the power of her will, the princess does what no one has done before: she learns which door hides the tiger and which hides the lady. She also learns who the lady is, one of the loveliest women at court, whom the princess hates and suspects of making eyes at her lover.
On the day of the trial the young man looks up at the princess. He knows she will know. She makes a tiny movement of her hand to the right. He walks straight to the right-hand door and opens it.
Stockton stops there. The princess had spent days torn between two horrors: watching him torn apart, or watching him marry a woman she hates. The story ends by asking the reader: "Which came out of the opened door, the lady, or the tiger?"
How our version is different
Our three-minute version turns the arena into a live TV show. The King owns every channel, the princess falls for the runner who brings her coffee, and the trial goes out live on Friday night to every screen in the country.
Like Stockton, we don't tell you which door opened. You decide in the comments.
Characters
- The king
- Proud and theatrical. His justice is really a show.
- The princess
- Fierce, clever and jealous. The whole ending depends on what kind of person she is.
- The young man
- Brave, and certain she will save him. He doesn't hesitate for a second.
- The lady
- Beautiful and almost completely in the background. The princess's jealousy of her is the problem.
Themes
Love and jealousy
The princess loves him enough to find out the secret. The question is whether she loves him enough to give him to someone else.
Justice by chance
The king calls the arena fair because nobody controls it. Stockton shows how cruel and random that "fairness" is.
Choice
The story is built around a decision that is never revealed, which makes the reader make it instead.
The ending explained
There is no official answer. Stockton refused to give one for the rest of his life.
The case for the tiger: the princess is "semi-barbaric" like her father, fiercely jealous, and the young man would belong to her rival for life. The case for the lady: she loves him, and letting him live, even with someone else, is the only way to save him. Most readers end up deciding based on what they think they would do.
Questions students ask
What is the answer to The Lady, or the Tiger?
There isn't one. Stockton deliberately left it open and never revealed which door opened.
Why did the princess hate the lady?
She thought the lady had looked at her lover with interest, and possibly that he had looked back. She was jealous of her.
Which door did the princess point to?
The right-hand door. The story never says what was behind it.
What kind of story is The Lady, or the Tiger?
It is a short story with an open, or unresolved, ending, first published in The Century magazine in 1882.
Adapted from: The Lady, or the Tiger?, Frank R. Stockton (1882).
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