The Lady or the Tiger?
“To love is to destroy and to be loved is to be the one destroyed,” Cassandra Clare states in the Mortal Instruments. Similarly, in his short story “The Lady or the Tiger?” Frank R. Stockton clearly expresses the damage inevitably caused by love. Stockton’s tale is about a semi-barbaric king who judges his people by letting them choose their own fate. The subject in question is placed in a crowd surrounded arena with two doors. Behind one door stands a fair and pure lady whose hand is to be given in marriage if her door be opened, but behind the second door paces a ferocious and hungry tiger that longs for its door to be chosen so that it may feast upon the poor guilty soul. A commoner is forced into the arena for loving …show more content…
Stockton presents the king as evidence in the concept of masked barbarism in humans. “Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and cultured. But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself.” (1) This text reveals how every person is capable of horrors they would care not to imagine, yet incapable of controlling said horrors. To expand upon this harsh reality, Stockton uses the princess as a further example. “Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature it is probable that the lady would not have been there, but her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an occasion in which she was so terribly interested.” (2) The princess is described as a semi-barbaric personality. When one first reads this statement he could be appalled at the thought of a barbaric character, but after a few moments of pondering he is likely to realize that he himself shares this quality. This is to say, the text reveals that each mortal being is in some partiality barbaric whether they realize it or not. Because of this, a human’s idea of love is misshaped to fit selfish and barbaric …show more content…
Stockton’s story “The Lady or the Tiger?” shows its readers the damages of love in selfish mortals through glimpses into the human thought process, telling of the barbarism hiding within human nature, and exposing the lies the heart tells the mind. The original contortion of love begins in the confusing thought process of humans, it then becomes more spiteful as the ideal meets the barbarism in a human’s nature, and finally love is ripped and lost in the maze of a lying heart. The concept of love is left as a patchwork of selfishness that is unable to perform the miracles its quintessential brother did with ease. The theme of love’s destruction in the hands of humans is applied to reality in a quite literal way. Humanity is imperfect and constantly makes mistakes. When one decides to love he opens a door of vulnerability, as does the other party. One party or the other will inevitably mess up causing pain and destruction for both people. The real world is a dangerous place, and if one decides to love he needs to be prepared for a
“To love is to destroy and to be loved is to be the one destroyed,” Cassandra Clare states in the Mortal Instruments. Similarly, in his short story “The Lady or the Tiger?” Frank R. Stockton clearly expresses the damage inevitably caused by love. Stockton’s tale is about a semi-barbaric king who judges his people by letting them choose their own fate. The subject in question is placed in a crowd surrounded arena with two doors. Behind one door stands a fair and pure lady whose hand is to be given in marriage if her door be opened, but behind the second door paces a ferocious and hungry tiger that longs for its door to be chosen so that it may feast upon the poor guilty soul. A commoner is forced into the arena for loving …show more content…
Stockton presents the king as evidence in the concept of masked barbarism in humans. “Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and cultured. But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself.” (1) This text reveals how every person is capable of horrors they would care not to imagine, yet incapable of controlling said horrors. To expand upon this harsh reality, Stockton uses the princess as a further example. “Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature it is probable that the lady would not have been there, but her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an occasion in which she was so terribly interested.” (2) The princess is described as a semi-barbaric personality. When one first reads this statement he could be appalled at the thought of a barbaric character, but after a few moments of pondering he is likely to realize that he himself shares this quality. This is to say, the text reveals that each mortal being is in some partiality barbaric whether they realize it or not. Because of this, a human’s idea of love is misshaped to fit selfish and barbaric …show more content…
Stockton’s story “The Lady or the Tiger?” shows its readers the damages of love in selfish mortals through glimpses into the human thought process, telling of the barbarism hiding within human nature, and exposing the lies the heart tells the mind. The original contortion of love begins in the confusing thought process of humans, it then becomes more spiteful as the ideal meets the barbarism in a human’s nature, and finally love is ripped and lost in the maze of a lying heart. The concept of love is left as a patchwork of selfishness that is unable to perform the miracles its quintessential brother did with ease. The theme of love’s destruction in the hands of humans is applied to reality in a quite literal way. Humanity is imperfect and constantly makes mistakes. When one decides to love he opens a door of vulnerability, as does the other party. One party or the other will inevitably mess up causing pain and destruction for both people. The real world is a dangerous place, and if one decides to love he needs to be prepared for a