"The Lady, or the Tiger?" is a much-anthologized short story written by Frank R. Stockton for publication in the November issue of The Century Magazine in 1882. "The Lady, or the Tiger?" has entered the English language as an allegorical expression, a shorthand indication or signifier, for a problem that is unsolvable.
A "semi-barbaric" king rules a land sometime in the past. Some of the king's ideas are progressive, but others cause people to suffer. One of the king's innovations is the use of a public trial by ordeal as "an agent of poetic justice", with guilt or innocence decided by the result of chance. A person accused of a crime is brought into a public arena and must choose one of two doors. [1] Behind one door is a lady whom the king has deemed an appropriate match for the accused; behind the other is a fierce, hungry tiger. Both doors are heavily soundproofed to prevent the accused from hearing what is behind each one. If he chooses the door with the lady behind it, he is innocent and must immediately marry her, but if he chooses the door with the tiger behind it, he is deemed guilty and is immediately devoured by the animal.
The king learns that his daughter has a lover, a handsome and brave youth who is of lower status than the princess, and has him imprisoned to await trial. By the time that day comes, the princess has used her influence to learn the positions of the lady and the tiger behind the two doors. She has also discovered that the lady is someone whom she hates, thinking her to be a rival for the affections of the accused. When he looks to the princess for help, she discreetly indicates the door on his right, which he opens.
The outcome of this choice is not revealed. Instead, the narrator departs from the story to summarize the princess's state of mind and her thoughts about directing the accused to one fate or the other, as she will lose him either to death or to marriage. She contemplates the pros and cons of each option, though notably considering the lady more. "And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door – the lady, or the tiger?"
In July 1885, again in The Century Magazine, Stockton published "The Discourager of Hesitancy", a follow-up to "The Lady, or the Tiger?", and set one year after the events of that story. Five travelers visit the kingdom to discover what the accused man had found behind the door he chose. Meeting with an official, they explain that one of their countrymen was present on that day, but fled without seeing the result. The official tells them a second story, of a prince who had come to the kingdom to find a wife. Instead of allowing him to see any available ladies, the king had him immediately taken to guest quarters and summoned attendants to prepare him for a wedding to be held the next day. One attendant introduced himself as the Discourager of Hesitancy and explained that his job was to ensure compliance with the king's will, through the subtle threat of the large "cimeter" (scimitar) he carried.
At noon on the following day, the prince was blindfolded and brought before a priest, where a marriage ceremony was performed and he could feel and hear a lady standing next to him. Once the ceremony was complete, the blindfold was removed and he turned to find 40 ladies standing before him, one of whom was his new bride. If he did not correctly identify her, the Discourager would execute him on the spot. The prince narrowed the possibilities down to two, one lady smiling and one frowning, and made the correct choice.
The kingdom official tells the five travelers that once they figure out which lady the prince had married, he will tell them the outcome of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" The story ends with a comment that they still have not come to a decision.
A play adaptation by Sydney Rosenfeld debuted at Wallack's Theatre in 1888 and ran for seven weeks. In addition to stretching out the story as long as possible to make it a play, at the end the choice was revealed to the audience: neither a lady nor a tiger, but an old hag. [2]
A radio dramatization of "The Lady, or the Tiger" by Elliott and Cathy Lewis aired on the show On Stage in 1953. [3]
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 1966 musical comedy The Apple Tree . [4]
The story served as inspiration for Raymond Smullyan's puzzle book by the same title, The Lady, or the Tiger?. [5] 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.
The Lady, or the Tiger? was adapted into a short film by Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation in 1970. [6] [7]
"The Purr-fect Crime", Season 1, Episode 19 of the U.S. television series Batman ends with a cliffhanger in which Catwoman has Batman locked in a room with two doors; one of which opens to her, and the other opens to a tiger. Over an intercom she taunts him with "Which will it be, Batman? The lady or the tiger?" Batman has no hint and chooses the door that has the tiger. [8]
The 2011 They Might Be Giants album Join Us includes a song titled "The Lady and the Tiger," which retells Stockton's story through lyrics such as "behind one door, a muffled roar. Behind the other, a voice."
In the 14th episode of the 2023 Korean drama My Dearest a character narrates the story of The Lady or the Tiger to Namkoong Min's character Lee Jang-hyun without mentioning the name of this story.
Recreational mathematics is mathematics carried out for recreation (entertainment) rather than as a strictly research-and-application-based professional activity or as a part of a student's formal education. Although it is not necessarily limited to being an endeavor for amateurs, many topics in this field require no knowledge of advanced mathematics. Recreational mathematics involves mathematical puzzles and games, often appealing to children and untrained adults and inspiring their further study of the subject.
Raymond Merrill Smullyan was an American mathematician, magician, concert pianist, logician, Taoist, and philosopher.
Frank Richard Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century.
Knights and Knaves is a type of logic puzzle where some characters can only answer questions truthfully, and others only falsely. The name was coined by Raymond Smullyan in his 1978 work What Is the Name of This Book?
Batman is an American live-action television series based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson/Robin—two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City from a variety of archvillains. It is known for its camp style and upbeat theme music, as well as its intentionally humorous, simplistic morality aimed at its preteen audience. It was described by executive producer William Dozier at the time as "the only situation comedy on the air without a laugh track". The 120 episodes aired on the ABC network for three seasons from January 12, 1966, to March 14, 1968, twice weekly during the first two seasons, and weekly for the third. In 2016, television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked Batman as the 82nd greatest American television series of all time. A companion feature film was released in 1966 between the first and second seasons of the TV show.
The Riddler is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, and debuted in Detective Comics #140 in October 1948. He has become one of the most enduring enemies of the superhero Batman and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery.
Bronze Tiger is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Dennis O'Neil, Leopoldo Durañona, and Jim Berry, he first appeared in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #1 during the Bronze Age of Comics.
Lady Shiva is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was co-created by Dennis O'Neil and Ric Estrada, and first appeared in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter #5. Over time, she has become more closely associated with Batman and related characters, both as an enemy and an ally. She is a Chinese/Japanese martial arts grandmaster and one of the most skilled combatants in the DC Universe. She is an assassin-for-hire who specializes in killing her targets with her bare hands, and is the mother of Cassandra Cain, aka Batgirl.
The League of Assassins is a group of supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The group is depicted as a collective of assassins who work for Ra's al Ghul, an enemy of the superhero Batman. The group appeared in Strange Adventures #215, but did not become officially known as the League of Assassins until Detective Comics #405.
Kobra is the name used by two supervillains published by DC Comics. The Jeffrey Burr incarnation of Kobra and his brother Jason first appeared in Kobra #1, and were created by Jack Kirby. Jason Burr debuted as Kobra in Faces of Evil: Kobra #1 by Ivan Brandon and Julian Lopez. The Kobra identity is later established as an international terrorist organization that frequently clashes with superheroes associated with the Justice League.
The drinker paradox is a theorem of classical predicate logic that can be stated as "There is someone in the pub such that, if he or she is drinking, then everyone in the pub is drinking." It was popularised by the mathematical logician Raymond Smullyan, who called it the "drinking principle" in his 1978 book What Is the Name of this Book?
Grayson is a 2004 fan film made by John Fiorella featuring DC Comics character Dick Grayson along with several other DC Universe characters. Since it is a fan film, it was not allowed to be sold at a profit and was thus distributed for free on the Internet.
The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith. Each act has its own storyline, but all three are tied together by a common theme and common references, such as references to the color brown. The first act is based on Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve; the second act is based on Frank R. Stockton's "The Lady, or the Tiger?"; the third act is based on Jules Feiffer's Passionella. The working title for the evening of three musicals was Come Back! Go Away! I Love You!
The Huntress is an antiheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is the third DC character to bear the name Huntress. Originally introduced as a new interpretation of Helena Wayne, no longer depicted as the future daughter of Batman and Catwoman as part of DC's post-Crisis on Infinite Earths relaunch, she was later established to be the modern-day equivalent, namesake and predecessor of Helena Wayne.
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever is a logic puzzle so called by American philosopher and logician George Boolos and published in The Harvard Review of Philosophy in 1996. Boolos' article includes multiple ways of solving the problem. A translation in Italian was published earlier in the newspaper La Repubblica, under the title L'indovinello più difficile del mondo.
Leatherwing, also known as Batman: Leatherwing, is a DC Comics Elseworlds story published in Detective Comics Annual #7 in 1994. It was written by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Enrique Alcatena, who also devised the plot.
Ivan Triesault was an Estonian-American actor. His parents were from the island of Hiiumaa.
Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a 2021 American animated superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment. It is the 42nd film of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. The film is directed by Sam Liu and executive produced by Bruce Timm featuring an original story not based on any comic, set in the 1970s and inspired by martial arts films of that time. It features the voices of David Giuntoli as Bruce Wayne / Batman, Mark Dacascos as Richard Dragon, Kelly Hu as Lady Shiva, Michael Jai White as Ben Turner / Bronze Tiger and James Hong as O-Sensei. White reprised his role from The CW's TV show Arrow and Hu reprised her role from WB Games Montréal's video game Batman: Arkham Origins. The film was dedicated to comic book writer Dennis O'Neil who died on June 11, 2020, at the age of 81.
The Lady or the Tiger public domain audiobook at LibriVox