"The Lady or the Tiger?" is a famous short story written by Frank R. Stockton in 1882. Stockton later wrote a continuation of this story, "The Discourager of Hesitancy". "The Lady or the Tiger?" has come into the English language as an allegorical expression meaning an unsolvable problem.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Other works 3 In popular culture 4 Further reading 5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The semi-barbaric King of an ancient land utilized an unusual form of administering justice 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 has 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 regarding human nature.

[edit] Other works

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.

[edit] In popular culture

A Batman (TV series) 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.

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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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. 

[edit] External links

• The Lady, or the Tiger? publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Lady, or the Tiger?

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Discourager of Hesitancy