Lady or the Tiger

668 Words3 Pages
Pena, Jacqueline Period 1 Ambiguity and “The Lady, or the Tiger?” “[S]he loved him with an arbor that had enough barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong” (301). In the short story “The Lady, or the Tiger” there is a lot of examples of irony. One day the king found that his daughter, the princess, had a lover. The king could not allow this and so he threw the offender in prison and set a date for his trial in the arena. The king's semi-barbaric method of administering justice was quite ironic. Behind one door was a beautiful woman hand-picked by the king and behind the other was a fierce tiger. We know who the lady is behind the door. We also know that the daughter really hates her as it says in this quote, “She hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind the silent door.” The offender would be placed in an arena where his only way out would be to go through one of two doors. Even though throughout the story we have only witnessed the princess as non barbaric, let et us not forget the "savage blood" that coursed through her and the "barbaric" ancestry she came from, and the fact that she hated the woman behind the door. She is titled as semi-barbaric but not once has she displayed her barbarism. She will reveal her barbaric side of herself when the story leads up to the choice of doors. Why be called semi-barbaric if you have no barbaric qualities. It would seem that due to her barbaric nature she would have not wanted her lover to find happiness with another woman, and so we could assume she guided him to the door with the tiger. The princess didn’t say anything she didn’t mean. She is left with fate in her hands, but the fateful outcome is tragic either way. She did not want him to find happiness with anyone else. She had a barbaric nature, and she knew that the beautiful young woman had cast glances upon her lover, and she had
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