TheLadyortheTiger可能性结局The

The End Of The Lady Or The Tiger
Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right and opened it, and there came out an awful tiger. The whole arena fell in a breathless silence. A terrible scream bursted out but soon died down and was replaced by the sounds of tearing clothes and flesh. Doleful iron bells clanged, and never before had the princess’s face been so pale. All of a sudden, she felt that there was a smile flashing by on her father’s face，which was as evil as the Devil did. And now, she understood. Clever as she was, her
father knew her too well. Her childish trick had never escaped his eyes. From the beginning till the end, his father, no, it’s the king that controlled everything, showing no mercy for the poor lady’s feeling whose name was called daughter. “Stupid is what I have done.” The princess finally made a bitter smile to herself. Her lover was dead, eaten up all by the monster but his bones. The most scaring sight of the world. She felt things turned black in her eyes and unconsciously fell into a dead faint.
When she came to conscious, the funeral had already been given. She ran out insanely and found herself crying beside her lover’s grave alone. So miserable did she feel that she might even cry to death. But at that time, a shadow stepped towards her, which a broken heart would never have noticed until he stood just in front of her. She kept her eyes wide open and stayed in shock. “Her lover’s soul” tenderly bent over and kissed away her tears, and she felt, felt the breath came from him. He was alive! He handed over a letter to her which explained well for why he stood here and alive.
Dear brother,
News came that you were casted into prison and the trial is around the corner, which haunts me day and night. Though all our family told me that my illness will be cured of, I know Azrael will take me away soon as it has got harder and harder for me to take even a breath. Now I have found a wonderful end of my life. Yes, quite as you expect at the moment, I will take the place of you. I am sure I can do that for we resemble each other in both appearance and nature if it is not because of my illness. Sorry that I can’t tell you a bit earlier to do the farewell. When you see the letter, I shoule have been in Heaven. So just pray for me, and don’t forget to tell my story to my fairy
sister-in-law.
Farewell…
Your sincere
That night, the couple married in front of his brother's tomb. There was no music and no priest , but they had got the most precious blessing of the world.
They ran away and no one knew where they had gone, only the moon and the tree that night saw the sweet secret.
An Appreciation of “the Lady, or the Tiger” by Frank Richard Stockton
Abstract：As the most popular short story written by Frank R. Stockton, “the Lady, or the Tiger”, known for its suspending end, sparked heated and enduring discussion and remained a staple in literature classes. How could a fairy tale be so fascinating as to draw perennial attention among readers? The present paper is an attempt to explore the depth of the story and the subliminal message of the text to throw light on readers’ understanding of Stockton’s works.
A widely read American novelist and humorist in his time, Frank R. Stockton produced a number of influential works like “the squirrel Inn”, “Mrs. Cliff’s yacht”, and so on. But today he is remembered chiefly as the author of “the Lady, or the Tiger”, a fairy tale characterized by wizard plotting, bold imagination, archaically elegant language and most of all, a dangling end, or rather, an end without end, that strikes burning curiosity and initiated a persistent “sequel-itis”续集炎，续篇炎among
readers of intense interest. Its popularity, as a result, has spanned generations since its first publication in 1882.
In telling the story, Stockton designed an ancient country as the background where there lived a semi-barbaric king who institutes a savage penal system gloried by himself as an embodiment of the “poetic justice”. As is prescribed by this primal首要的，根本的legal system, when a subject is accused of a crime serious enough to interest the king, he would be taken to an arena in which there are two doors—behind one of them is a ravenous饿极了的tiger and the other a lady. The accused person is given a chance to open either of them to decide his fate. If he chooses the former, he would be ripped into pieces by the tiger as a punishment for his crime. But if chance decides otherwise with his choice of the latter, he would be married to that lady. The system is thus applauded by all subjects for its “absolute justice”. When one day the king happened to discover the romance between his cherished daughter and a young man far beneath her status, he doesn’t hesitate for a single moment to implement his “great scheme of retribution报应，惩罚and reward”. The young man, as a result, is forced to bet his luck in the arena. Before he made a decision between life and death, however, he cast his inquisitive好奇的，好问的eyes upon the
princess, who, with her great power, has made plain to herself the secret of the doors. Then came the most elaborate and intricate description of the inner conflict of the princess who is, as a matter of fact, seared煎熬by the choice day and night. Loving the young man with great ardor热情and fiery火热, she is reluctant to see the tragedy of her lover’s being devoured by the tiger; but her reluctance is greater to see him tie the knot with the fair lady, toward whom she harbored abysmal深不可测的，无底的，极坏的jealousy and venom毒液，恶意. Day after night, love, self-interest, grudge吝啬，怀恨，怨恨and suspicion are intertwined together to complicate her mind, making her waver between the lady and the tiger. W ould she save her lover for old times’ sake? Or would she steel her heart and prefer her lover’s death to his marrying another one? Readers hold their breath and wait for an immediate answer as the princess makes a secret gesture to one door.
Yet the story ends abruptly here. Stockton refrains from making any personal choice between the Lady and the Tiger. In fact, his own voice as the writer vanishes in the end, leaving ample scope for every reader to search his own conscience and ask himself the natural question: “what would I choose if I were the princess?” The open end just has in it all possibilities for
exploration. Since the publication of the story, a multitude of sequels续集have turned up to “round off the suspenseful story” as thus intended. However, “the lady, or the tiger” is far beyond a story or a detective fiction merely for the public entertainment or amusement. Behind its legendary plot there lies profound life reality which necessitates a close scrutiny审视，审查.
In a narrow sense, Stockton fictionalizes a love dilemma in which some of us would be entangled, yet more broadly, it is a life confusion that all of us would encounter.
The heroine’s vehement强烈的emotional conflict is, as a matter of fact, a revelation of mankind’s preoccupation with self-interest which has gone so wild as to dim是暗淡love, the noblest human emotion, into triviality无足轻重. If love is benevolence, blessing and devotion as eternally extolled赞美，颂扬, the young man could naturally escape the jaw of Death by the princess’s mercy to him that is only too common between doting溺爱的，偏爱的lovers. Ironically, it is none other than 不是别人，正是the princess he loves with his whole being who is irresolute in throwing the light of compassion when his life is on a razor’s edge. It can be easily found that the hesitation is due to her commitment to opposite poles, one commitment to her
lover’s interest and the other to her own interest. And as any thinking readers could discern, whatever her choice is, the princess can’t be spared免不了the loss of her lover, the only difference being his death and his marriage to another girl. Her vexation, that is to say, doesn’t primarily originate from the deprivation of her beloved one, but from her perverse reluctance of allowing anyone else to take what she herself would lose possession of. She claims to love him with all fervor and enthusiasm. But somewhere in her soul lurks the spark of egoism, which, if fuelled by impulsion, would spread into a big blaze burning down all around her. Her love toward the youngster is thus in its nature possessive and selfish that go astray from the essence of true love. And the young man is taken only as her personal belonging or an embellishment装饰品serving her needs and comforts. When his life is in collision with her self-interest, she falters犹豫，踌躇. Egoism from within gets the upper hand of love. The violent emotional conflicts harassing her mind day and night explain nothing but her prevailing selfishness and hegemony霸道mentality. Though nothing is exposed in the end, still some clues could be caught by meticulous小心翼翼的，注重细节的readers. For instance, the writer’s description of the princess’s agony from
opening the door of tiger is only half the length of the exhaustive portrayal of her morbid病态的，不正常的craze from another choice. And her distorted psychology from jealousy is much more vividly delineated详细记述than her lamentation upon her lover’s wretched destiny. Stockton does devote more endeavors in depicting a self-interested heroine. The vague end, as a result, could not conceal her seamy恶劣的side, let alone absolve赦免her from the sin of apathy and selfishness. In this sense, it is not the young man but the princess who is actually under the trial------in the court of conscience.
A fictitious story as it is, “The Lady, or the Tiger” is a true reflection of the dark side of human nature in reality. The princess is in the tale deliberately depicted as a “semi-barbaric” soul with beastly nature, a fact bespeaking 显示，表示，表明her ferocity凶猛，残暴and absurdity of the choice itself. However, can’t it be said that the semi-barbaric heroine is seized by the egoism 自私自利，that is easy to identify in many of her civilized counterparts. It is not uncommon that modern men tirelessly jostle挤，撞，推with each other for fame and fortune, crush discord minds, slaughter their peers同伴and even provoke sibling兄弟姐妹wars, all merely for the purpose of
maximizing their own interest. Aren’t these civilized being just as selfish as a semi-barbaric creature when wedged楔入between their own interest and other people? In this way, the evil of egoism hidden in the heart of modern men is startlingly alike with the ancient vulgar beings. Instead of using didactic说教的，为人师表的moralizing, however, the writer applies clever humor and an incomplete plot to invoke read ers’ attention and poke揭穿at jealousy, violence, selfishness and other human foibles小缺点，小毛病. It is vintage葡萄收获季节Stockton, indeed. Apart from that, a multitude of vivid metaphors, vibrant振动的，鲜明的，活泼的description and elaborately-chosen diction greatly spice up the story and set its tone as a light and humorous one. These amalgam混合物of elements helps to attain the writer’s goal of mocking at the modern civilization not violently but in a moderate way, which contributes to the sustaining appeal of the work upon readers.。