The Lady, or the Tiger?

"The Lady, or the Tiger?" is a much-anthologized short story written by Frank R. Stockton for publication in the magazine The Century in 1882. "The Lady, or the Tiger?" has come into the English language as an allegorical expression, a shorthand indication or signifier for a problem that is unsolvable. The underlying allegory is parallel to the dilemmas often faced by participants in problems predicted by game theory.^{[citation needed]}

Plot summary

The semi-barbaric king of an ancient land used an unusual form of punishment for offenders in his kingdom. The offender would be placed in an arena where his only way out would be to go through one of two doors. Behind one door was a beautiful woman hand-picked by the king and behind the other was a fierce tiger. The offender was then asked to pick one of the doors without knowing what was behind it. If he picked the door with the woman behind it, then he was declared innocent but was also required to marry the woman, regardless of previous marital status. If he picked the door with the tiger behind it, though, then he was deemed guilty and the tiger would rip him to pieces.

One day the king found that his daughter, the princess, had taken a lover far beneath her station. The king could not allow this and so he threw the offender in prison and set a date for his trial in the arena. On the day of his trial the suitor looked to the princess for some indication of which door to pick. The princess did, in fact, know which door concealed the woman and which one the tiger, but was faced with a conundrum —if she indicated the door with the tiger, then the man she loved would be killed on the spot; however, if she indicated the door with the lady, her lover would be forced to marry another woman, a woman that the princess deeply hated and believed her lover had flirted with. Finally she did indicate a door, which the suitor then opened.

At this point the question is posed to the reader, "Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady?" The question is not answered, and is left as a thought experiment

Other works

By Stockton

Stockton later wrote a continuation of this story, "The Discourager of Hesitancy".

By other artists

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp released a recording of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" and "The Discourager of Hesitancy" with Willcox reading the stories to electric guitar accompaniment by Fripp.

"The Lady, or the Tiger?" is one of three short stories that were adapted into the musical comedy The Apple Tree.

The story was the inspiration for Raymond Smullyan's puzzle book by the same title, The Lady, or the Tiger? (ISBN 0812921178). The first set of logic puzzles in the book had a similar scenario to the short story in which a king gives each prisoner a choice between a number of doors; behind each one was either a lady or a tiger. However, the king bases the prisoner's fate on intelligence and not luck by posting a statement on each door that can be true or false.

In popular culture

A Batman episode has Batman choosing two doors. Behind one is Catwoman and behind the other is a live tiger. Batman chooses the "tiger" door but manages to escape.

In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Catwalk", Catwoman throws a stuffed Tasmanian Tiger onto a log about to burn, and asks Batman, "The lady or the tiger, darling. It's your choice."

Game show host Monty Hall stated in a TV interview that his partner, Stefan Hatos, had always been experimenting with a game show based on The Lady, or the Tiger, in which contestants would win what was behind one of two doors that they could choose. Eventually, Hatos expanded from two doors to three doors, and it became one of the most successful game shows in history, Let's Make a Deal.

In The Simpsons episode "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore", Lenny and Carl are presented with two doors, behind one is Homer Simpson, the other, a Bengal tiger. It is revealed that both doors have tigers, one named Homer Simpson.

In a scene in the comedy film The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother the character Moriarty invites a henchman to leave by one of two doors---one red, the other blue---behind which he hears a woman and a tiger, respectively. Although the henchman chooses the red door, we hear him being attacked by a tiger anyway.

In 2008, French singer Juliette included a song named "La Jeune Fille ou le Tigre" (The Lady, or the Tiger) based on the story, on her album Bijoux et Babioles.

Gu Long's character Chu Liuxiang was faced with similar choices towards the end of "Legend of the Peach Blossom".

On July 19th, 2011, They Might Be Giants released the album Join Us which includes the song "The Lady and the Tiger". The lyrics are an imagined dialog between The Lady and the Tiger.

On October 20th, 2011, Private Practice (TV series) featured the story in an opening monologue.

Further reading

• Stockton, F. R. (November 1882). "The Lady, or the Tiger?". The Century 25 (1): 83–86. http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml. 

External links

• The Lady, or the Tiger? publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Audiobook recordings of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" at LibriVox