THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? by FRANK STOCKTON

1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales

Jon Hagadorn

Fiction, Arts

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2018

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In "The Lady, or the Tiger", by Frank Stockton, a semi-barbaric king has devised a trial by chance that offers the accused a choice of two doors. Behind one is a beautiful lady who will become his wife once he opnes the door. Behind the other is a man-eating tiger waiting to spring upon whoever opens the door. In the story, the king has discovered that his daughter is madly in love with a handsome courtier, so naturally, like any doting father, he puts the courier in jail to await his trial. Meanwhile, the king's daughter finds out something very interesting about the lady who has been chosen and will be placed behind the second door. Comments to us at [email protected] are invited after listening to the episode, and we'll play them after next week's episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. I'm going to. The Welcome back to
0:36.2	to one thousand one classic short stories and tales.
0:39.2	Today's story, The Lady or the Tiger is a much anthologized short story written by Frank Stockton for publication in the magazine, The Century in 1882.
0:54.5	The expression, The Lady or the Tiger has entered the English language as an allegorical expression,
0:59.5	a shorthand indication or signifier, for a problem that is unsolvable.
1:06.2	The story takes place in a land ruled by a barbaric king with a knack for inventive trials,
1:12.0	with guilt or innocence decided by chance in a public arena.
1:16.6	A person accused of a crime is brought into the arena as they did in Rome and must choose one of two doors.
1:24.7	Behind one door is a lady whom the king has deemed an appropriate match for the accused.
1:30.8	Behind the other is a fierce hungry tiger.
1:34.0	Both doors are heavily soundproofed to prevent the accused from hearing what is behind each one.
1:40.0	If he chooses the door with the lady behind it, he is innocent and must immediately marry her.
1:46.0	But if he chooses the door with the tiger behind it, he is deemed guilty and is immediately attacked by it.
1:52.0	The king learns that his... and is immediately attacked by it.
1:54.1	The king learns that his daughter has a lover, a handsome and brave youth who is of lower
1:58.7	status than the princess, and has him imprisoned to wait trial.
2:03.0	By the time that day comes, the princess has used her influence
2:07.0	to learn the positions of the lady and the tiger behind the two doors.
2:11.0	She has also discovered that the lady is someone whom she hates
2:15.0	thinking her to be a rival for the affections of the accused. When the action
2:20.3	takes place and he looks to the princess for help she discreetly indicates the
2:24.8	door on his right which he opens the rest I'll leave up to the story.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jon Hagadorn, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jon Hagadorn and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.