Talk:The Lady, or the Tiger?

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Is there a reason that the article links to itself? (the discourager of hesitancy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.249.197.121 (talk) 01:40, 26 September 2007 (UTC) I expanded the article to better explain the background and subsequent problem faced by the princess in the story, but it could still use some editing. Cvaneg 20:21, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

nice story. I think the lady kills the dragon.

Contents

[edit] Date

It is sourced as 1882, but states it was written in 1884. 76.15.60.107 (talk) 00:04, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Now corrected. 1882 is the date that it first appeared. It was in a magazine. 1884 is the first time it appeared in book form in a collection. Somebody has, obviously, been unaware that the magazine appearance predated the book. 129.94.117.165 (talk) 00:09, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Tiger?

  • The Princess loves the suitor but will lose him him either way; furthermore she is LIKE IDIOT AND MORE JEALOUS OF THE LADY having the suitor. Therefore she indicates the Tiger door.

No no, despite her jealousy, she'd rather the suitor lived...he loves her and she knows it, so his "wedding" will not be the end for them...and if the cad won't leave his new "wife" for her, she can always send him back to tango with the tiger. Therefore she indicates the Lady door.

(Today I feel optimistic about human nature.)

---Or, the suitor knew the Princess well enough to know that she'd know he'd know she'd lie out of jealousy, so he chose the door she indicated, and thus lived a happily married life until the Princess, pouting prettily, perfidiously paid a pauper to put poison in his new wife's punch.

(Whereupon the suitor cried a tear, buried his wife, and eloped with the Princess.)

I'm not sure what is going here, but isn't it enough to indicate that no one knows the ending? My language-arts teacher indicated that "The Discourager of Hesitancy" was written to tell all the people asking for who/what came from the door; the lady or the tiger. It was pretty much saying, "Shut up, shut up. I can put you all on the edge over and over and over, but you'll never get the answer from me as to which came out of the door." Danny Sepley (talk) 00:54, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

The Lady is the obvious answer. One can always have an affair. And if there's another trial (for the affair), eh, give him the lady again.... until the princess is the lady up for grabs. Problem solved. No conundrum. 128.255.187.32 (talk) 09:47, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Creative Writing Assignments

  • Remember having to finish the story for freshman high school English class. My friend & I offered the scenario that there WAS a tiger behind the door,

but it was a LADY tiger, and the man and the tiger got married, and they lived happily ever after...until one day the tiger ate the man for leaving the toilet seat up! -65.122.209.163 08:29, 31 August 2006 (UTC) HAHAHAHA brilliant! --dan 01:06, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Catch-22

I don't see how the princess' situation is a Catch-22 (as describided is the Catch-22 article) either I am misunderstanding something or the word have to be changed.ErnestC 15:37, 3 March 2007 (UTC)


I made the changeErnestC 10:24, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Either way, she loses her lover. MMetro (talk) 13:36, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] If the king was stupid

Couldn't the princess be the Lady? That would make it an easy choice. But since the king selects the lady and he did not like the princess' mate I guess it would not happen. Still, I think it could be pointed out. But perhaps there is some subtleness that I did not get (English is not my main language) so that this was obviously impossible? (Like if a princess could not be called Lady) --84.55.112.254 19:38, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I think it's because the story implied that the lady is already in the chamber at the same time that the princess is giving the guy the signal, so she couldn't (quite aside from social issues) also be the lady. --Gwern (contribs) 00:37 20 March 2007 (GMT)
When I was half way through the story, I thought the big twist was that the princess was the Lady.

-G

Again, I'm not sure; but I think that the princess hated the lady who was behind the door, as the original text indicated. She knew who it was, and that's why she was having a problem with deciding whether to let her lover live or kill him. Danny Sepley (talk) 00:56, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mark Twain

There is a Mark Twain story about a land ruled by a King who only has a daughter. The country can only be ruled by a man. The King's brother has a child who, as far as anyone knows, is a man, but is in fact a girl who has been raised as a man. She has been designated as the King's heir and will be married to the King's daughter at the time of the coronation. As the King lies dying, the niece sits on the royal throne, contemplating her becoming the next king, and her cousin, her prospective wife, comes into the throne room and makes a pass at her. When the heir(ess) rejects the girl, the King's daughter makes a fuss and claims that her cousin raped her. The only way to prove that the heiress did not rape her cousin, is to show that she's really a girl, but if she does that, then she will be killed, for having profaned the throne by sitting on it. Does anybody know the name of this story? Corvus cornix 21:42, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

"Hillary Clinton 2008"?

-G —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.158.83 (talk) 21:17, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] An easy way out

I think the solution is so obvious I must have failed to understand the problem: Why doesn't the princess ask her lover which option he would prefer? 87.91.121.5 (talk) 14:26, 27 January 2008 (UTC)Manon de Gaillande

[edit] Moral Dilemmas

This classic tale presents the moral dilemma of the princess: she loses her lover with either choice; how she would choose, and how others would choose -- on what basis would choose -- continues to be an active area of study among serious researchers around the world. One such is Prof. Roberta Saxe in the department of neuro-biology at MIT. See: http://www.bostonreview.net/BR30.5/saxe.html Frankatca (talk) 15:50, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

It's really a study of how moraly developed the answer is more then a study of the question. And in what ways. And really: The easy answer is to understand that a shotgun wedding has no meaning... so... well... yeah. The lady followed by a nice affair. But even if that was impossible it's always the lady. After all, killing someone out of jealousy is, well, evil. If she would give the tiger she is not worthy of love, because she thinks of humans as possessions instead of as people. 128.255.187.32 (talk) 09:52, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Doom book referance

In the "Doom" book series that is based on the video game by the same name, there is a situation where the main characters, Fly and Arlene, have to choose between one of two different gates. At this point, Arlene brings up the question, "The lady or the tiger?" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.27.47.68 (talk) 09:11, 27 February 2008 (UTC)