Given the background of the story “The Lady or the Tiger?” by Frank Stockton, one can easily tell that the princess-barbarian is in quite an ethical dilemma. If she points to the right door – where a lady waits to be married to her lover – she loses. Of course, if she points to the wrong one – where a ferocious tiger awaits the unsuspecting youth – she still loses. If you put yourself in her position, it would be truly difficult to choose her barbaric nature over love and that the author points out. Still, if the young man she loves marries the woman who awaits behind the door to the right, she has to live with the jealousy of losing out on such a handsome man even if he was poor and seemingly unworthy of her hand. Of course, if she points to the wrong door – the one which has the ferocious tiger – she will lose the love of her life in a most gruesome manner as possible. Worse still, she will have to watch it all (Stockton).
So, what does she do? Think of herself first and risk the life of her lover or make a sacrifice and live with her father's choice for the rest of her life? It truly seems like a no-win situation for the princess, no matter how privileged her life might seem. Losing one's love changes Life drastically and worse still, if the choice lies in her hands. Still, given the nature of her stature in Life and how women are very attached to their families – especially their fathers – I believe that she would lie and point her lover to the door that has the most ferocious tiger in the land waiting to tear him to shreds. While she will have to live with the guilt of sending him to his death, for no fault of his, it would certainly seem a better choice to pick this option as opposed to allowing him to marry a beautiful woman that she is jealous of (Stockton). Women, who aren't born in high society, might make the ultimate sacrifice but this princess will probably pick this option so as to save face, even if it is her father's barbarism to blame.
Having said that, there's no doubt that the guilt of her lover's death will linger on but it will be easier to swallow since she can always find someone else, given that her father is king of the land and will most certainly seek out proposals for his daughter's hand as soon as she is of marriageable age. Of course, if her lover is still alive at that point, it will be very difficult for her to accept anyone else's love since a woman's heart is very difficult to sway once she truly falls in love with someone. This might seems cruel and definitely unfair to her lover (and to the princess) but the door that he will open is the one that has a tiger waiting to pounce on its prey. As difficult as it is, the reason for this is women almost always pick family over love and are usually more than prepared to live with the consequences too - then and now.
Works Cited
Stockton, Frank. "The Lady or the Tiger?" East of the Web Website. 1882. Web. 25 January 2017. <http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml/>
