Book Review Example on The Lady or The Tiger

Did the princess lead her love to the lovely lady or the bloodthirsty tiger? In the story “The lady or the Tiger” the author Frank Stockton, asks us the question. The story goes: In a land near the Roman Empire there was a king who had an arena. The arena was used as the justice system. In the arena there were 2 doors. The accused person would walk to the doors. Behind one door there is a bloodthirsty tiger. Behind the other is a lady who the accused will be married to on the spot. This was used in all cases no matter if the accused was married or not. One case was the case of the princess herself and a man. They were both in love with each other. The king eventually found out, and the man was sent to the arena.

During the time between when the man was accused and the time of his trial they found a lady to go behind the door and she was the most beautiful they could find. During this time the princess discovered which door held the lady and the tiger. She realized she would be “asked” which door the man should go into. So she thought long and hard about the matter. On the day of the she moved her arm to the right and he went to the door on the right. This is where the story ends and the author wants us to interpret which door she told the man to go into.

There is debate about which door she chose. Many believe she chose the door of the lady because she wouldn’t want to see her lover die a bloody death right in front of her eyes. This is a popular theory, yet in the story the author often points out that her father is semi-barbaric and that she too. The author states “This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own.” This means that she was just as barbaric as he was. This is only one of the many reasons people believe she chose the door of the tiger.

She was jealous of the lady who her lover would marry if he opened the door of the lady. She thought that the lady had her eyes on her lover. “It was one of the fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court who had been selected as the reward of the accused youth,...Often had she seen, or imagined that she had seen, this fair creature throwing glances of admiration upon the person of her lover, and sometimes she thought these glances were perceived, and even returned.” 
She even hated the lady, she said that “Now and then she had seen them talking together; it was but for a moment or two...and, with all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors, she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent door”. When she was debating which door she should tell her lover she had thought about “How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman...“hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy”. There is still even more evidence to support this theory. While the princess is contemplating her decision she thinks about the afterlife and that it might just be better for her lover to wait for her. “Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaricsemibarbaric futurity?” Now that you have seen all the evidence that supports the door of the tiger. It is left to you...which door did the princess lead her lover?