Previous
Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Lady or the Tiger?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Barbarism and Civilization
Justice, Impartiality, and Bias
The Danger of Treating Life as Art
Uncertainty, Love, and Trust
Interpretation and the Interpreter
Summary
Analysis
Long ago, there lived a semi-barbaric king who, though influenced somewhat by the progressiveness of his “distant Latin neighbors” (presumably the Romans), nonetheless had grandiose ideas, an exuberant imagination, and governed his kingdom like a tyrant. He liked it when things went his way, and liked it even more when things didn’t, because he took great pleasure in making “the crooked straight.”
The king is like a god in his power, but not a benevolent one. He takes great pleasure in making the crooked straight because he enjoys more than anything exerting his will heroically—not only that, but he also enjoys the drama of conflict that he ultimately wins, which anticipates the pleasure he takes in his arena.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
One reason the king is considered only “semi-barbaric” and not wholly barbaric is that he adopted from his Latin neighbors the public arena. Barbarically, however, the king staged not gladiatorial contests or Christian martyrdoms in his arena, but trials. His arena was “an agent of poetic justice,” where vice was punished and virtue rewarded “by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.”
Ironically, the king’s Latin neighbors are just as barbaric as he is, evinced by their gladiatorial contests and religious persecution. The narrator is also being ironic in calling the arena an agent of poetic justice, for there is no such thing as justice determined by chance. One might call it “impartial punishment”, or “blind punishment,” but not justice. The king’s “semi” barbarity involves the fact that he has created a system that even he himself cannot alter once it is set in motion; the “barbarity” remains in that the “justice” is no justice at all, but rather an enjoyment of the infliction of arbitrary rules, and possibly pain and death, upon a person.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
The public arena worked like this: when a subject was accused of a crime that interested the king, an announcement would be issued that on an appointed day that subject’s trial would be held in the arena. When the day came, an audience would consequently assemble at the arena, into which would be released the subject on trial. In the arena were two identical doors, one on the right and one on the left; behind one of these was the fiercest tiger that could be found, and behind the other a lady suitable to become the accused’s wife. The subject could open whichever door he pleased, unguided save by chance.
If the accused opened the door leading to the tiger in the public arena, the tiger would invariably kill him, iron bells would sadly toll, hired mourners would wail, and the audience would leave the arena with “downcast hearts,” sad “that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a fate.” If the accused opened the door leading to the lady, however, he would be instantly married to her, regardless of whether or not he already had a wife or wanted to marry at all; brass bells would happily ring, the audience would cheer, and the married man would lead his bride home on a path strewed with flowers.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
Get the entire The Lady or the Tiger? LitChart as a printable PDF.
This public arena, then, was “the king’s semi-barbaric method of administering justice.” It was perfectly fair in that the accused did not know which door held which fate, and in that the accused was instantly punished if he found himself guilty, instantly rewarded if he found himself innocent—also in that the accused had “the whole matter in his own hands.” The uncertainty of the accused’s fate lent interest to his trial—would the audience see “a bloody slaughter or a hilarious wedding”? This made the institution of the public arena very popular, both entertaining and pleasing.
Now, the king had a daughter, the princess, as fanciful and passionate as her father. She had fallen in love with a young man, one of the king’s courtiers, and her inherited barbarism only made her love “exceedingly warm and strong.” Their love affair was happy for months—until the king discovered it. The young man was imprisoned for daring to love the princess; his trial was to be held in the public arena. Everyone, from the king to his subjects, was especially interested in this case, because none like it had ever occurred before.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
The public arena was stocked with the most savage tiger and the most beautiful woman suitable to the young man as determined “by competent judges.” Everyone knew the young man had indeed loved the princess, and not even he or the princess denied the fact, but the king would not allow this to interfere with the workings of his justice system. Either way the king would be happy, because the young man “would be disposed of,” and he himself would “take an aesthetic pleasure” in watching the trial unfold.
The day of the trial arrived. A huge audience gathered to watch. The young man was released into the public arena, to the admiration and anxiety of the audience—they thought him a grand youth, and thought it terrible for him to be in the arena. The young man, as was customary, bowed to the king, but was looking all the while at the princess. She would not have been present at the trial were she less passionate and not “so terribly interested” in it, thinking of nothing else for days and nights on end.
So interested, in fact, was the princess, that – as no one before her ever had, not even the king – she had used gold and willpower to learn which door in the public arena held which fate. Not only did the princess know which door held which fate, but she also knew who the lady was whom the young man might marry, “one of the fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court.” And the princess hated this lady, having seen her, or having imagined that she had seen her, admiring the young man and talking with him.
From the floor of the public arena, the young man looked into the princess’s eyes and knew at once—for so it is with lovers whose souls are one—that the princess knew which door held which fate. The young man had expected as much; his only hope was that the princess would succeed in discovering this information, and he knew in his soul that she would succeed, and she had. With a glance he asked the princess which door to open, and in a flash, unseen by anyone save the young man, the princess raised her right hand “and made a slight quick movement toward the right.” The young man rapidly walked to the door on the right and opened it.
But did the tiger came out, or the lady? The more we reflect on this question, the narrator says, the harder it is to answer. “It involves a study of the human heart which leads us through devious mazes of passion.” The question is not whether we would have the young man be punished or rewarded, but what we think the princess would decide to do. How often during her long “days and nights of anguished deliberation” had she seen with horror the tiger kill her lover—but how much oftener yet had she seen her lover marry another woman, which kindled furious jealousy in the princess’s heart!
The narrator announces, “it is not for me to presume to set myself up as the one person able to answer” whether the princess sent her lover to death or marriage, either one agonizing for her. So we are left with the question: “Which came out of the opened door—the lady, or the tiger?”
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
