Ever read Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger"? Yeah, I'm sure you have. It's one of those stories that you rehash in your mind every so often, wondering which ending Stockton would have chosen.
I read through the story once again yesterday, and was struck by a strange idea. Stockton asks which door the princess would have pointed to, being the semi-barbaric soul she was. Now, I want to ask the question - which door would I have pointed at?
I'd like to think that I would choose the woman. To give the one who loved me another chance at life. Yet on the other hand, I've never been in the position of losing one I greatly loved to another. Would I have the strength to live through the torture of knowing that he could never be mine?
Can I truly say what I would do in such a situation?
7 comments:
Even better, I saw it in musical form, as the middle section of The Apple Tree on Broadway.
It really is a hard decision...but I think the answer is, if you really truly love a person, you will be big enough to let them go, even though it might be unimaginably painful. The question for the Princess is, who does she love more, herself or her soldier? But we are not spoiled, semi-barbaric princesses and should not behave like them.
That is not to say that it would be an easy decision to make, and it would be even harder to put such a decision into practice. And worse, harder still not to utterly loathe the woman who took him from you...
Sounds like another fun lit class coming up!
This reminds me of something I think about every time I read holocaust literature or hear of survivors' stories...
Could I have done what they did? Made the superhuman decisions they did? Would I be strong enough...?
It scares me...
wow, tough but good questions.
Can you hold on...while i read it please..?
I've thought that story is awful since I read it probably 10+ years ago. I think that all of us, no matter how agonizing it would be, as frum Jews, would be able to recognize the sanctity of someone else's life and let him have the woman. But it would be so so hard...Sometimes the greatest way to show your love for someone is to let them go...but how it hurts...:-(
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