The princess of Stockton's "The Lady, or the Tiger?" is
like her father, semi-barbaric. Therefore, she is possessive of some rather cruel
traits in her barbaric "enthusiasm" such as having "a soul as fervent and imperious" as
her father's. When she sees her lover with a maiden, the princess has her pride
offended and is enraged and jealous as well:
she loved him with an ardor that had enough of
barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and
strong.
Yet, because he was
such a "grand youth" it was "no wonder" that the princess loves him and agonizes when
she sees him with another. But, because she is barbaric, she attends the "trial"
because she is able to handle the cruelty of the event. And, because she has power and
influence, and "force of character," the princess has learned the secret of behind which
door the tiger waits; in addition, she is aware of who the maiden is that waits behind
the other door. With her jealous nature, this maiden the princess hates
with
all the
intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric
ancestors....
Semi-barbaric,
powerful, passionate, intense, jealous--the princess is possessive of complex and often
conflicting traits that are at the center of the tension of the plot of Stockton's
story.
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