The story is narrated in the third person addressing the readers directly. The story is set in the ancient times. It begins with the narrator introducing a semi-barbaric king, semi-barbaric because he has a civilized Latin influence on his life. However, he unleashes his barbaric side by exercising an unusual system of justice on his people when found guilty of any crime.
The accused is placed in an arena all by himself, which has two doors. The accused is faced with the task of choosing one of the doors which would lead him to freedom. The other, of course, would be sure death. The door that leads to freedom has a maiden sitting behind it, whom the accused would have to marry right away leaving no room for his opinion. Whereas, the other door has a ferocious, hungry tiger behind it. The doors are identical, and this is what gives the story a nail-biting finish.
This system of justice enthralled the audience as the fate of the accused was in his own hands. They loved the experience of sitting at the edge of their chairs to witness the outcome―freedom or death.
The story proceeds further with an interesting twist to it where the king’s daughter―the princess―falls in love with a commoner. When the king discovers this affair, he turns livid and summons his soldiers to arrest the commoner and put him behind bars. He calls for the game to begin. In the meanwhile, he sends out his soldiers to find the most ferocious and dangerous man-eating tiger to be put behind one of the doors. The softer side of him chooses one of the most beautiful maidens for the young man to be put behind the other door.
The princess being madly in love with her lover, plots to free him. She secretly, with power and money, finds the door to freedom and the maiden who would be sitting behind it. Unfortunately for her, the maiden is also in love with the commoner, and the princess detests her for that.
Finally, on the day of the trial, she sits along with her father―the king―in the arena to witness the final outcome. As the accused lover is presented before the king, he looks up to her, and she signals with her right hand indicating that he should take the right door. As the young lover moves forward to open it, the narrator abruptly stops the story. Thus, leaving it to the readers to decide on the conclusion―Liberty or Doom.
The story ends in a suspense, and the narrator sets out the princess’s dilemma. The princess was aware that she will be asked for help by her lover. The princess loved the commoner; however, she had a barbaric streak in her. She had imagined the horror of the tiger eating her lover, and on the other hand, she was tormented by the thought of her lover marrying someone else whom she hated. In any case, the princess had lost her lover. However, it was in her power to decide to whom she would lose her lover.
The narrator describes the princess’s anguish and dilemma from the time her lover was cast into prison. The endless nights of sleeplessness, the will and power that she exudes to free her lover, the agony of losing him to another woman, and the fear of seeing her lover being devoured by a tiger― the choice was hers. She knew she had to decide and that she did. The softer, angelic nature in her overcame the barbaric, jealous one, and she set her lover free.
The ending
The commoner chose the wrong door. Once he opened he was instantly overwhelmed by the amount of tigers and all he wanted to do was escape and run far away but he couldn’t. The guards were blocking the only way out of that room of horror and were focused of the commoner to make sure he follows his fate and goes through the door. A few days before the princess cried and begged the king to have mercy on the love of her life. The princess begged and cried so hard that her eyes started to feel like they were about to burst out of her head. The princess knew there was a possibility that he wouldn’t end up with her if he survived and would run to the maiden as soon as he got out but she loved him too much to let him die even if it meant she’d suffer every time she saw him with her. The king rejected her and her ideas as many times as he had to but he secretly considered it. After a few days the king made up his mind. He still went with his idea of the tigers but he put a door at the end of the room that the commoner had to reach in order to escape and for the king to know if he’s smart and can get through situations like this but no one knew about that idea. He went and put the door there himself. The moment the commoner went in he saw the door but he quickly moved his attention to the tigers. Of course he couldn’t just walk there and open the door he had to break through the tigers with not many injuries. The king put ropes and climbing frames. The ropes were extremely high and to get there you’d need incredible amount of strength and will power and the ropes and climbing frames were so many they seemed infinite. The room was giant. He had to focus on his power although there were multiple hungry tigers waiting impatiently to devour him. Half way he was very tired and needed somewhere to stand and rest but if he lost his grip he’d fall to his death so instead of procrastinating he decided to climb and jump from one rope to another. He was almost done when he decided to stop and rest but he noticed after a few seconds that the ropes were much more loose and weak than the rest. The king made the last fifty of the ropes weaker so the commoner wouldn’t have time to rest and could only stay on one rope for only a few seconds otherwise he’d fall. After ten ropes huge knives started to swing from left to right that would cut him into two pieces if he made a wrong move. He thought about letting go and giving up but he knew that would make the princess downhearted and depressed. He knew he wanted to have a future with the princess and didn’t want to give up anymore. With fear in his heart and thoughts of his death he jumped from one rope to another and finally arrived to his destination. The commoner excitedly and aggressively tried to open the door but when it didn’t open he noticed there was a keyhole. He assumed the key had to be close and most likely well hidden so he searched. A few minutes later he found a letter that said “The key is on one of the tigers back. There is meat at the corner you can use them to bring the tigers to you. The key is in a little bag“. The commoner knew exactly what he had to do but he was terrified. He successfully got the tigers to come to him and he spotted the one with a bag on his back. He swung the meat around so the tigers wouldn’t notice his other hand trying to get the bag and once he got it he threw the meat far across the room and the tigers followed it. He unlocked the door and quickly escaped. He had tears of joy and relief in his eyes and was quite amazed by himself and his strength and will power. The king was watching the entire time and now he had no choice but to let him marry his daughter. The commoner quickly guessed what the king tried to do with that traumatizing task but after all he thought about was running to the princess. He ran to her and once he saw her he gave her a passionate kiss and a few days later they got married. The king saw how happy they were together and fully accepted their marriage for the sake of his daughter’s happiness. They were happy and excited to start a new life together as a married couple. One day they were eating dinner together and the princess started to choke and passed out. She was rushed to the hospital. The prince was extremely worried. a few hours later the princess woke up but was still weak and she asked for the prince. She told the prince she loved him because she felt like the end was near. A few hours later the princess passed away. The maiden had a disgusting smile on her face when she found out about the princess’ death. The prince found out the the love of his life had been poisoned and the maiden started to work her way through the prince’s life but the prince thought everything was a little suspicious that the maiden was so quick to try and get with him. He got a detective to confirm his suspicion and sure enough the maiden’s fingerprints were found everywhere in the kitchen and where the dinner was being cooked. He then beat up the maiden till she owned up to what she did. He made her suffer the same fate he did trying to get with the princess. The maiden fell to her death and was devoured by the tigers. The prince still felt empty, broken, and like the world was working against him. He couldn’t bear the pain anymore and he hung himself in the princess’ favorite place. The garden. He wrote a letter before committing suicide. “In another life we’ll meet again“
Love is more powerful than anyone can imagine. It can change people in the worst and best ways and people put their lives on the line for it. But stay away from it.
Very dramatic I know.
serli 