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The Lady Or The Tiger Theme Essay

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Love vs. Jealousy In the ruckus of life, love and jealousy can become intertwined and destroy the other. Jealousy can strangle all life out of the love that has been formed over time. Frank R. Stockton reveals in his short story titled “The Lady or the Tiger?”, that often times jealousy causes one to question their loyalty to a person due to their immediate emotions overriding reason and the relationship previously built. In the story, the theme of jealousy is introduced through the external conflict expressed in the text. This story takes place in the Middle Ages, during which a physical trial would determine the fate of the convicted. The trials of the guilty ended in violence because it was believed that God only saved the innocent, so when the king inadvertently “...opened the one [door], there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon [the convicted], and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt” (299). The information about the cruelty of the affair provided in the excerpt gives the reader insight to the princess’s hesitance to feeding the youth to the lion and the king’s motives to sending the youth to a trial …show more content…

The princess in “The Lady or the Tiger” struggles when determining the youth’s fate of death or marriage to another beautiful lady and asks herself “Which [door]? [The answer] was as plain to her as if he shouted it from where he stood. There was not an instant to be lost. The question was asked in a flash; it must be answered in another” (302). Up until the last second, the youth that the princess had loved believes that she will spare him; he has a blind faith in the princess and trusts in her choices. The king’s daughter’s heart is torn during this point of decision. She must decide whether she would prefer to see the youth dead or with the lady whom she

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