[transcribed 2021-06-02]

**Write a multiparagraph essay that describes the main internal conflict in
“The Lady, or the Tiger?” and answers the final question of the story: Which
came out of the opened door—the lady, or the tiger? Be sure to use evidence
from the text to support your ideas.**

The main internal conflict is set up by a description of the kingdom’s
arena-system that is used for justifying the outcome of a criminal’s error: two
doors are placed for the criminal to choose from. The criminal must chose which
one they enter. Behind a random door is a tiger, ready to eat the criminal as
soon as it has the chance. Behind the other is a young lady, to be married
immediately, should her door be opened. The contents of the doors are randomly
swapped, so the criminal cannot simply memorize where the prize or punishment
is. It’s a simple, random, win-or-die event.

In “The Lady, or the Tiger?”, the princess of the kingdom had fallen in love
with a man of no particular royalty. It was, of course, not permitted for the
princess to marry someone of such a lowly status, however, and once discovered,
the two were to be separated, with the princess’s lover’s fate chosen to be
decided in the arena.

But there was enough time before the event for the princess to talk with her
lover, and explain her plan to him: she would discover what was behind each
door, and direct him to the correct door.

However, the *correct* door for the princess to send her lover through quickly
became difficult to decide upon. She could send him through the door holding
the lady, but he would be married to the maiden within as soon as he went
through – and the princess *hated* her. She had seen her love and the lady
exchange glances and even discuss with each other; and that wasn’t fair, the
man was supposed to the princess’s!

But she could also vividly imagine the outcome, were she to send him through
the tiger’s door – the blood, gore, death, and cries – it wasn’t something she
wanted to see, or cause, either.

The princess’s decision is left open-ended. Within the book, there is no
definitive answer; which door she opens is left for the reader to decide.

However, I think it may be most plausible that the princess decided to direct
her lover towards the door of the tiger. She clearly hated the lady behind the
door, and knew she didn’t deserve him. To quote the book, “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.”

She made it clear she understood the terror of what would happen were he to
open the tiger’s door, stating “How often, in her waking hours and in her
dreams, had she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as
she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the
cruel fangs of the tiger!”.

But the story continued, and it showed that she had thought much more often and
greatly of the scene where the man were to open the door of the lady: “But how
much oftener had she seen him at the other door!”

To put further emphasis on the choice of having the princess’s lover avoid the
lady behind the door, the second-to-last paragraph ends saying “Would it not be
better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of
semi-barbaric futurity?”

The final paragraph provides another comment on how horrible it would be, for
the man to be devoured by the tiger (“And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks,
that blood!”) but I think it’s much outweighed by her hatred of the lady,
making her decision to direct the man into the door of the tiger.