After the class discussion, answer the following using complete sentences.
What door do you think the princess told her lover to choose in “the lady or the tiger”? Use indirect
and direct characterization to support your answer.

Answer and Explanation:

In the short story "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by American author and humorist Frank Richard Stockton, I believe the princess chooses the door that will lead her lover to the tiger.

The narrator uses direct characterization when he tells us the princess is semi-barbaric, just like her father. From this piece of information, we can easily infer she is not totally rational in her decisions. She will allow her emotions, which revolve mainly around jealousy and anger, to get the better of her.

Indirect characterization is also used when the narrator describes her feelings, thoughts, and actions concerning the possibility of her lover opening the door the lady:

But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph;

From the excerpt above, we can tell the princess is indeed letting jealousy dominate her. Instead of wishing her lover to be alive and well, she seems to rather wish him dead, all because of her fear of seeing him marry another woman. For those reasons, I believe the princess pointed him to the door that leads to the tiger.

a. the scene is structured as a dialogue between two characters in their own informal language.

the answers are:

1. dolores driscoll - b. first person minor

dolores is a minor character who happens to be driving the bus at the time of the accident. she narrates picking up each of the children and her last memory is the children being thrown around the bus.

2. billy ansel - a. first person major

billy loses his twins in the accident. he tells his own story, how he witnessed the accident and how he tried to the rescuers. he is a major character, as he is at the center of the story.

3. mitchell stephens - c. first person observer

mitchell enters the story after the accident. he is a lawyer who learns about the accident based on other characters observations. though he tells the story from a first person perspective, he is just an observer.

as for matcthing the message or lesson posted with the person who said them:

1."obviously, you can't control everything, but you are obliged to take care of the few things you can. i'm an optimist basically who acts like a pessimist. on principle. just in case." - dolores driscoll

2. "i could no longer believe even in life. . for me now the only reality was death." - billy ansel