In the “The Lady or the Tiger?” Frank R. Stockton describes a short story that takes place in a very olden and barbaric time. This story consist of a “semi-barbaric” king, a lover boy, and a princess. When newly received information of his daughter’s affair come to his attention, the king reveals that the young man she is in love with is unfit to be in a relationship with his daughter. In order for the young man to right his wrong, the king devised a justice system that is based off of fate. In a public arena, that the king created for the accused, stood two doors. Behind one door, waited a lovely maiden. If the young man were to open this particular door, he would then be married to the young lady and have a second chance at life. However, …show more content…
She did this knowing that her loved one would walk in the stadium and immediately look to her for the answer of which door to choose. However, the young boy did not consider the princess’s jealousy when she gave him her answer. Unfortunately for the princess, behind one of the doors “was one of the fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court who had been selected as the reward of the accused youth . . . and the princess hated her” (Stockton 205). The princess did not necessarily hate this maiden for no reason but rather for an action that the lady may or may not have committed. Stockton claims that the princess had witnessed or imagined this lovely damsel gazing at her beloved and her beloved returning the glances (205). Although the princess loves the young man, she realizes that if she reveals to him the door with the lovely damsel she would have to deal with the agony of watching her beloved rush joyously to the woman behind the door while the celebration of matrimony took place right before her eyes. The princess would have to live her life suffering as she watched the man she loves live a happy life with the woman she …show more content…
Stockton points out the heartbreaking experience of “hearing the shrieks and seeing the blood of her beloved as the tiger rips him apart” (207). It would be very difficult to deal with the violent death of her beloved, but seeing him getting torn apart by the man-eating tiger is only temporary; while the marriage would last a life time. Why should the princess let him live happily ever after? After all, Stockton claims that “The girl was lovely, but she had dared to raise her eyes to the loved one of the princess; and with all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of whole barbaric ancestors, she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent door” (205). The Princess had many hours to contemplate her decision and since she comes from a long line of savagely cruel ancestors, it is very probable that she made the savage decision. Instead of watching her lover boy be overjoyed and married to a woman that she despises, it is likely that she would rather watch her beloved be violently attacked and
What would you do if someone you loved was being tried and they either lost their life or had to live with someone else? This is the choice that a young princess was faced with, but what did she choose? In “The Lady Or The Tiger,” the princess gave into her own greed and would rather see her lover die, than see him happy with someone else. She would rather end his life shorter for her own good instead of having his best interest at heart.
The struggle for superiority can sometimes grow too intense. In Penelope Lively’s novel Moon Tiger, she illustrates a scene with two siblings scaling a cliff at the beach as they search for fossils. Once Claudia sees her brother Gordon find something, she desires to reach the top of the cliff in hopes of finding a wealth of these fossils. As she attempts to pass Gordon to reach the top, he tries to block her path, and she ends up slipping and falling to the ground below. Their mother, Edith Hampton, attempts to calm her children and help Claudia regardless of her exhaustion. Lively uses literary devices such as diction, personification, imagery, repetition, and selection of details to dramatize the complex relationships among the family
Ludwig Tieck’s novella, Eckbert the Fair, presents a certain ambiguity of moral values. The story meets a tragic ending where the main couple of the fairytale, Eckbert and Bertha, die as punishment for their crimes of betrayal, theft, and murder. However, an uneasy feeling of injustice remains about the punishment despite the clarity of their guilt. The tale itself strongly resembles a tragic play defined by Aristotle, but the narrative deviates from the structure of standard tragedy. In effect, the unique set-up of the narrative makes the evil deeds seem ultimately inevitable. The structure of the novella helps justifying the crimes, causing the distinction between the good and the bad to become unclear. In this paper, I will discuss this unique structure of the tale to analyze how this uneasy feeling about the ending emerges.
In life we have many choices. Some choices may be more difficult than others. At times as human beings we make the wrong choice, but also there’s times when our choice is the correct or the better one. Talking about choices the choices we make can affect our entire life overall or can just affect a small aspect of our life. Of course, with choices there are also consequences behind the choice if the wrong decision is made. This can sometimes re-shape our entire life and flip it upside down. Sometimes these consequences can be harsh punishments such as serving jail time for example. Through these consequences no matter how difficult they may be to overcome a lesson can almost always be taught. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer a Knight who has raped a woman and now will suffer consequences such as death. He escapes these consequences with the order of the queen to find out what most women want in life of course, The Knight thinks he’s off the hook yet some may argue that his punishment has just begun. The Knight committed a terrible crime by raping a woman and he did not receive punishment he deserved by what happened in the end of the story, the choice he had was very interesting and the Knight understands the nature of women.
... beloved wife has made the decision for him. After going through this incredible journey of his, not only did he study women but he had to explain what women most desired to the queen. Otherwise he would have been beheaded, but was spared because of his looks. Was this justice? Indeed it would have been justice back in the 1300’s because if you were beautiful you could be spared and do a noble deed for the king/queen as they asked. If you did not complete it who knows what could have happened. But for the knight, he completed what he was told to do and in fact after he raped the woman and he was being prosecuted, the journey of his made him find the true knight inside of him. The old woman choice that was offer to the knight demonstrated that he learned his lesson through his sufficient punishment and redemption for his crime.
Frank R. Stockton's “The Lady or the Tiger” portrays through the White Goddess vs. the Creature of Nightmare, the Maze along with the Crossroads, and Star Crossed Lovers archetypes that love is a sacrifice. For example, the author describes the princess as, “..hot blooded...” with a, “...soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy. ”(3). Similar to the Creature of Nightmare, the princess has evil within her psyche.
The book "Tears of a Tiger" by Sharon M. Draper is an amazing adult-teen fiction that captures the difficulty of dealing with reality and the consequences of bad actions. Draper puts forth a MTV-like setting, placed at Hazelwood High School. In this depressing novel, Sharon Draper captures perspectives from all of those teens who were effected by the horrible incident. The book is told from many different viewpoints. It is told by descriptive news articles, emotional letters, and conversations between various people involved in the book. This book can connect to people of all ages going through similar events.
In Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger?" a young man, the forbidden lover of a princess, is sentenced to a trial by ordeal: in front of thousands of onlookers, he must choose between two doors. Behind one waits a tiger, behind the other waits a lovely maiden. Only the princess herself possesses the knowledge that will save her lover's life, though in doing so, she will send him into the arms of another woman. Stockton leaves whether or not she saves her beau to the reader's imagination.
The princess had every right to be in love with the prince. The princess goes to the spectacle because she decides on the door for the prince (a punishment or a reward). She gets the final decision of the prince’s future which is either love or torture.
This in fact drew the attention of the Prince. Cinderella sat with him in the most honorable seat and danced with him. She had to leave but he did not want her to. But she did and in the process left her slipper. The prince is determined to find out who the glass slipper belongs to because he would marry that one according to the French & German stories. Cinderella fits the slipper. There is a wedding ceremony Cinderella and the Prince are married.
Punishment, by Rabindranath Tagore, is a short story involving Indian culture and a dilemma for two brothers. Dukhiram and Chidam slaved in the fields all day, as their wives would fight and scream at each other at the house. One day the brothers came home to their wives with no food awaiting them. Dukhiram, furious and enraged, asked his wife where the food was. Radha, his wife, said sarcastically," Where is the food? You didn't give me anything to cook. Must I earn the money myself to buy it?" (Punishment, pg.1451) After a hard days work, Dukhiram couldn't handle the sarcasim. So he stabbed Radha in the head with his knife. In the mean while, Ramlochan, the pillar of the village, came to collect rent from the brothers. He walked in the house and witnessed Dukhiram sobbing in the corner. Chidam rushed over and explained the recent events to the Ramlochan. Since Ramlochan was the man who took care of legal matters, he decided to help Chidam. They both decided it would be best to place the blame on Chidam's wife, Chandara. Chidam did not wish to lose his brother, and he felt he could make up a story to clear his wife from the charges anyways. Word of the murder spread around town and soon the police came to question Chandara. Chidam had instructed her to say that Radha attacked her with a slicer, and she reacted in self-defense. However, Chandara told the police the opposite. She said that Radha didn't attack her in any way. Chidam, absolutely shocked, couldn't believe what his wife had said. She continued to confess her guilt to all who questioned her. The case then went to trial, where once again she pronounced her actions of murder. Chidam was que...
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
The Wife of Bath tells the tale of a young knight whom, after the rape of a maiden, must search for the answer to the question, "what is it that women most desire?" The knight has one year to find the answer and return to King Arthur's court, or else he will be sentenced to death. The knight's journey does not go well. No matter where he goes or whom he asks, he does not get a good answer. As he approaches, they disappear leaving an old woman. She says that she has the answer to his question, but will only state it before the queen, and on the condition that he does whatever she asks of him. The knight agrees.
There are very few roles in life that are as wonderful, exhausting, and criticized as being a parent. Part of the hardship is that parenting comes with no instruction manual. One moment you are a singular person with your own personal concerns. The next moment, you have this tiny little being peering up at you and a realization sets in that everything you do or do not do is going to impact this minute person. This insecurity in parenting abilities is where parenting books find their niche, including Amy Chua 's Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother, where she states her belief that only extreme Chinese style parenting is effective at raising intelligent children that lead to successful adults. Not surprisingly,
The tale of Sleeping Beauty is influenced by oral folklore and various written versions. Today fairytales are told as a domain for the entertainment and teachings of children. In traditional storytelling, peasants transmitted folklore orally around campfires to audiences of mixed ages. However, during the 17th century, peasant tales, such as Sleeping Beauty, were altered by writers like Charles Perrault’s, to appeal to the courts of aristocracy. Thus the characters of Sleeping Beauty adorned a courtly air to appeal to the crown, such as Louis XIV of France. Throughout history, various cultural influences transformed the tale of Sleeping Beauty through the manipulation of various social forces to achieve better entertainment purposes and reflect Christian beliefs and customs. In addition, the moral of the tale conveys a message that women remain passive in hope to marry her true lov...