Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger

by Saki

Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger: Situational Irony 1 key example

Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The Tame Tiger:

In the key example of situational irony in the story, the tiger that Mrs. Packletide kills is not a ferocious beast that she outwits and overpowers, but a sick and tame animal who dies mostly due to old age and general weakness. The irony of Mrs. Packletide’s “hunt” comes across in the following passage, in which the narrator describes how the Indian villagers did a lot of Mrs. Packletide’s work for her:

The one great anxiety was lest he should die of old age before the date appointed for the memsahib’s shoot. Mothers carrying their babies home through the jungle after the day’s work in the fields hushed their singing lest they might curtail the restful sleep of the venerable herd-robber.