<i></i><i></i> SPOILERS!!! <i></i><i></i><p>Its interesting that in 1882 the authors refusal to give an ending would have been seen as challenging and innovative but to me in 2020 it seems like a cop-out. I don't need the undercurrents made clear to me - I can already see all that. I want an ending to the story.<p>The more interesting angle is that the guy should realise that the princess might direct him to the wrong door. His thought process about it is much more interesting to me than my own as the reader.<p>A 2020 version needs some extra twist at the end. The King, perhaps, knows his daughter all too well, and has put a wedding behind both doors. Or the Princess has loftier aims, and has secretly trained the tiger to attack the King, and usher in a new era of civility, but to do that (somehow or other ) she has to allow her love to marry someone else etc etc<p>Still, I love that things people wrote in 1882 are now being zinged accross the world by a huge world-spanning machine made of billions of devices that people in 1882 would barely have been able to imagine.<p>edit: drewzero1, elsewhere in this thread, reminds me of the They Might Be Giants song that looks at the situation from a much more 21st century perspective: <a href="http://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:The_Lady_And_The_Tiger" rel="nofollow">http://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:The_Lady_And_The_Tiger</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nQemVw2Lb0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nQemVw2Lb0</a>
One has to suppose it was the lady behind the door. The princess would choose which door to direct him to based on his love for her. If he truly loved her, she could not bear to see him torn apart. If he did not love her, she could not bear to see him move on to some other woman. In his turn, he must recognize that there is some chance that she is lying to him, that she has chosen to send him to his death. Yet he turns towards the exact door she has directed him to with complete faith and calm. There is no doubt whatsoever in his mind that she has chosen to let him live. If he had been the conniving sort, he might assume that the indicated door was the one containing the beast, and on this basis selected the opposite door. Indeed, he is still offered a choice, between faith and deception, whether to do as she says, or to turn away from it. On this basis, one assumes, she would direct him towards the door of salvation, knowing that he might choose to ignore her, and turn towards the door of certain doom instead. (There is a parallel here to C S Lewis' description of religious faith, if you are familiar with his writing)
I learned about this story from a They Might Be Giants song, told from the other side of the doors. The characters are bored waiting for the resolution of the story (Spoilers? forever).
[] <a href="http://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:The_Lady_And_The_Tiger" rel="nofollow">http://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:The_Lady_And_The_Tiger</a>
If he believed the Princess truly loved him, he'd expect her to point to the door with the Lady behind it. However truly loving her, he would rather die than live without her, and would choose the door opposite to the one she indicated intending to die.<p>On the other hand if he truly understood the depth of the Princess's jealousy and expected her to indicate the door with the Tiger, he would realise her cruelty and choose the door opposite to that she indicated, in order to forsake her and enjoy a happy life.<p>So either way he should choose the other door.
Although the author is unwilling to state his answer, it's rather heavily implied she pointed him to the tiger.<p>> 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!<p>contra<p>> But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! 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, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph; [...].<p>It is also interesting to see the sprinkles of social Darwinism throughout out the story.<p>> Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature, it is probable that lady would not have been there; but her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an occasion in which she was so terribly interested.
> I opened the door on the left, knowing it contained the tiger or the princess. As the tiger leapt on to me, I begged the King for a do-over.<p>-- <a href="https://twitter.com/VeryShortStory/status/502108012501544960" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/VeryShortStory/status/502108012501544960</a><p>> To my surprise, the King agreed, and I opened the other door. Too late, as the princess leapt on me, I realized my mistake.<p>-- <a href="https://twitter.com/VeryShortSequel/status/502108257528610816" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/VeryShortSequel/status/50210825752861081...</a>
Talking about ladies and tigers...<p><pre><code> There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.</code></pre>
Is there a similar test psychiatrists or therapists use to understand their patients? Seems like the answer would reveal a lot about the person giving it.
Could the man take his faith in his own hands and chose the opposite door?<p>Could someone on trial ignore the doors, to force the king to execute the decision?
People in 1882 must have been really patient. I was annoyed that I’ve spent 10 minutes reading a story that could have been conveyed in 5 sentences at most.