Ostensibly
"The Lady or the Tiger" is a story about justice, that is, the only
kind of justice possible in fiction--poetic justice. The end of the game played by the
semibarbaric king has only two alternatives, and they are quite purposely the
conventional alternative endings of comedy or tragedy--marriage or death.
The
fact that this particular story "ends" before it ends, giving the
reader the freedom to choose a conclusion, is a game on Stockton's part to
exploit the reader's need to "close" a story, to see true justice
enacted. Stockton urges readers to close
the story not by choosing what they want to come out of the doors, but rather
in the way readers always achieve closure--by looking back at the plot, the tone,
and the thematic motifs to determine the story's thematic "end."
Since
the story makes quite clear that the semibarbaric nature of the princess
consists of her being both lady-like and tigerish, what readers ae really asked
to decide is which aspect of the princess dominates at the end--her lady side
or her tiger side. Because the
presentation of what goes on the princess' mind makes quite clear which side
that is, the reader is not so free to choose as it first appears.
An
interesting film version of this story in the Short Story Showcase Series
distributed by Encyclopaedia Britannica places the story in a modern setting
and relies heavily on montage to structure the events The film manages to capture the satiric
intent of the story and to suggest the numerous ironies in the story, most of
which focus on the concept of pure justice as being that which is
uncontaminated by human knowledge or choice.
The
story is most interesting, however, for its focus on the reader's need for
closure. For even though the story
leaves little doubt that the tiger pounces out at the end (for the princess has
more tiger in her personality than lady), most readers feel somehow tricked or
cheated that the author leaves the final choice ostensibly open.
Tomorrow:
Henry James's "The Real Thing"
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