The Lady or The Tiger?

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 1:39am

For all of you who have seen/read The Apple Tree, who do you think she chose?

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 1:42am

after talking with my friend who attended with me, I think she would have chosen the Tiger but, I would have chosen the Lady and lived a life of sin.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 1:42am

Well the Tiger was very Sexy
So I go with him.
Sorry Lorin.

[courtnyj]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 1:48am

I agree with Mistress_Spouzic.

Haha! The Tiger was very S&M!

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 2:03am

its funny because the three people I was with were all saying how theyd send their lover to the Tiger and questioned my morals for pointing out the possibility of an affair... somehow I thought killing him would be the bigger sin tho I suppose a hopeless romantic might suggest life with someone you dont love would be worse than death and thus the Tiger would be mercy.

[gumbo2]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 2:19am

I think she chose the Tiger. As for me, I'd like to think I would choose the Lady, but I'm not 100% sure.

[EugLoven]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 5:26am

I'd chose the Lady.
Love lives.
Death is... well...

For those unfamiliar with the story:
www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml Updated On: 12/7/06 at 05:26 AM

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 9:16am

"Well the Tiger was very Sexy
So I go with him."

I love your way of thinking Curtain...and I totally agree with you.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:30am

yes, the tiger, Sean Palmer, was hot.. too bad I'm not into S&M!

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 12/7/06 at 11:37am

¡Amo tigres!

[Elphaba397]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 12:44am

I would have chosen the Tiger because Sean Palmer is soooo cute!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 1:59am

I had to read this short story in high school and our assignment was to choose an ending. I wrote that she made him choose the tiger, but he was somehow able to kill it bare-handed although he lost an arm in the process. (He later got a prosthetic arm.) Anyway, this feat so impressed the king that he offered him his daughter's hand in marriage. I know, major cop-out, but I couldn't decide.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:06am

I think she would have chose the Tiger. Her name isn't Bar-Bare-Ah for nothing...

I think if most people were honest, they rather see their lover dead than seeing them have a possibility of having a happy/love-filled/full-filling life with someone else.

Updated On: 12/22/06 at 02:06 AM

[Anakela]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:12am

I just saw The Apple Tree tonight, and at first I totally chose a cop-out way- I say she finds a way to put herself in the box in place of the lady, since she is the Princess she somehow is able to do this, and so that way when he chooses the lady he actually ends up choosing her.

But to fit with the piece as written I vote for lady, and then an affair for the rest of their lives.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:26am

"I think she would have chose the Tiger. Her name isn't Bar-Bare-Ah for nothing..."

If I recall correctly, in the short story none of the characters (prisoner, king, princess) had names. However, in THE APPLE TREE the princess is named Barbara (accent on the second syllable) because in the short story the king, his kingdom, and their customs are often referred to as "barbaric," no reflection on the princess' personality at all.

Anakela: The princess wouldn't be behind the door because the prisoner looks to her for help in choosing a door.

[Mistress_Spouzic]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:31am

yeah, initially, since I wasnt familiar with the story, i thought that she was going to put herself behind a door, but not instead of the lady- instead of the tiger- so hed live no matter which door he chose.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:39am

Actually Stagemanager2, although none of the characters are named, the adjective "barbaric" was used to describe the Princess in that "she loved him with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong." Not to mention that she gets compared to her father and it is said that she was the apple of his eye. He also says that if she were not semi-barbaric herself, she would not have attended the tribunal (of course if you argue that she picks the lady, then..). It just seems the author uses a lot of adjectives that deal with passion and emotion to describe the princess rather than ones that sound more like honor and sacrifice.

Another argument would be when the author gives the reader ways the Princess was deliberating with herself on which door to choose, the description of what would happen if she chose the lady was seemed, to me, to have had a lot more thought put into it. For the tiger, her thoughts are brief (though to be fair, there isn't much to say about a tiger maiming a human), however, when she's thinking about him opening the door and finding the lady, she gets into a huge panic about how the people will be cheering and the ceremony and his and the lady's reaction of joy and relief while nobody would hear the Princess' cry.

Updated On: 12/22/06 at 02:39 AM

[roquat]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:42am

Like everyone else on the planet, I had to read the short story in middle school and write an ending. I had the princess choosing the lady, then running up to the hero and the lady as they left the amphitheatre, stabbing the lady to death, sweeping the hero into a coach, and riding off into the sunset. Completely illogical, laughable, and violent, but I was a gruesome child.

I think most children are apt to say she chose the tiger; so are those adult children who see love as a matter of possession. ("If I can't have him, no one will!")

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:46am

In my experiences roquat, I actually have a lot of people saying the Lady. I think they don't want to say Tiger because then it would really be them that would be picking the tiger, and they don't want to show that maybe despite all of our advancements, we can be just as barbaric as we were centuries ago.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 5:29am

Also, the part was written for Barbara Harris, and that would just be TOO obvious.

Hence, Bar-BARE-uh.

Pretty clever.

[dymk]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 7:01am

I would choose the Lady, because I would want the person I loved to be happy. (Awwwww) That being said, my partner said he would choose the tiger, so I don't know how I feel about that!

I think that we put our own "baggage" into the story at that point in the story, so maybe the author was trying to bring our own emotions and thoughts into the equation to see how we would answer the question. It's not important what the princess would choose, but what would YOU choose . . .

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 7:18am

>> maybe the author was trying to bring our own emotions and thoughts into the equation to see how we would answer the question

He wrote several other "cliffhanger" short stories, all with ethical quandries. Check them out; they're all as much fun as "Lady or the Tiger".

[morosco]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:39pm

~sigh~