25 pages • 50 minutes read
The Lady, or the Tiger?
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Character Analysis
The King
Like most archetypal characters, the king is unnamed and defined by a few salient characteristics. He is introduced in the first paragraphs as the catalyst for the public arena, and his thought process is examined in detail. He is repeatedly described as “semi-barbaric” (Paragraphs 1, 7, 9) because he oscillates between the progressive influence of his “distant Latin neighbors” and his own “large, florid, and untrammeled” ideas (Paragraph 1). He can turn his most exuberant fancies into realities by sheer will and authority and is not shown to take counsel, as “when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was done” (Paragraph 1). He becomes “blander and more genial still” whenever “every member of his domestic and political systems [does not move] smoothly in its appointed course, [...] for nothing [pleases] him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places” (Paragraph 1).
As an authoritarian ruler, the king enjoys the spectacle of the public arena under the guise of rationality and efficacy. The narrator constantly praises the king’s behavior, but the actions he describes belie his admiring tone. When the king discovers his daughter’s affair and sends her lover to prison, the narrator says, “No matter how the affair turned out, the youth would be disposed of, and the king would take an aesthetic pleasure in watching the course of events” (Paragraph 15). The king’s “aesthetic pleasure” at watching the young man either die or be forcefully married to someone else reveals his enjoyment of the suffering of others.
The Princess
As an archetype, the princess is also unnamed and characterized by a few main traits. She is said to be “as blooming as [the king’s] most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own” (Paragraph 9), and loved by both her father and her subjects. As for the young courtier she has an affair with, she loves him “with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong” (Paragraph 15).
When her lover is sent to prison before his trial, the princess uses her “power, influence and force of character” to learn behind which of the two doors the tiger and the lady will be placed (Paragraph 19). Although she acts out of love, the princess displays uncompromising authority similar to her father’s and is described as a “hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess” in a direct echo of the king’s defining trait (Paragraph 26).
The princess’s motivations are as ambiguous as her actions. On one hand, she hates the lady whose hand is offered as a reward because she is jealous of the attention her lover gave her (even though she cannot be sure whether those advances were returned). On the other, the princess is terrified of watching her lover die should he open the tiger’s door. Torn between “the combined fires of despair and jealousy” (Paragraph 26), between her love and her “savage blood” (Paragraph 20), the princess’s hesitation is what eventually leads the narrator to ask: “She had lost him, but who should have him?” (Paragraph 30). Because the princess is so unpredictable, the problem cannot be answered definitively.
The Lover
The third and last archetypal character is the princess’s love interest. He is described as “a young man of that fineness of blood and lowness of station common to the conventional heroes of romance who love royal maidens, […] handsome and brave to a degree unsurpassed in all this kingdom” (Paragraph 9). He and the princess are in love, but when their affair is discovered by the king, the courtier is imprisoned. The narrator remarks that “never before had a subject dared to love the daughter of the king” (Paragraph 9), suggesting that the outcome of the trial to “determine whether or not the young man had done wrong in allowing himself to love the princess” is yet uncertain (Paragraph 15).
As the lover walks into the arena, the crowd is moved by his beauty and youth. His love and trust in the princess are evident when he turns to her and sees, “by that power of quick perception which is given to those whose souls are one, that she knew behind which door crouched the tiger, and behind which stood the lady” (Paragraph 15). The young man’s qualities are highlighted to elicit the reader’s sympathy, but the narrator takes care to introduce doubt by mentioning his potential infidelity: “Often had [the princess] seen, or imagined that she had seen, [a lady] throwing glances of admiration upon the person of her lover, and sometimes she thought these glances were perceived, and even returned” (Paragraph 14). By offering an ambiguous portrait of the lover, the narrator ensures that there cannot be a definite answer to the final question. Indeed, the princess eventually indicates one of the doors to her lover, and the tale concludes as he opens it.
The Narrator
Although most of the story is told by an omniscient third-person narrator, the point of view switches to a first-person account in the last few paragraphs, with the narrator addressing the reader directly. Even in the first part of the tale, though, the third-person narrator’s biased point of view is evident in exclamations, grandiose (and satirical) prose, and moral judgments.
The narrator does not participate in the story but instead relates it to the reader, interrupting it to pose the final question: “Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady?” (Paragraph 19). Throughout the tale, he openly praises the king’s “exuberant and barbaric fancy” (Paragraph 3) and the “perfect fairness” (Paragraph 7) of his justice system, while describing the cruel and flawed logic that underlies the king’s actions, a contrast that creates a humorous effect.
In the final paragraphs, the narrator appears more subdued. He refrains from offering an answer to the question he poses, arguing that “it is not for [him] to presume to set [himself] up as the one person able to answer it” (Paragraph 26). His dynamic, ironic prose gives way to a humbler voice, which sets him up as a figure of authority and credibility rather than merely an exaggerating storyteller, encouraging the reader to take his question seriously.
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