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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Shifting Nature of Justice

In this story, the shifting nature of justice is put on display, both by the king and by the princess. Under the king’s leadership, justice is a matter of blind chance. The king’s arena is set up to deliver justice in a simple metaphorical coin flip involving the two doors. The accused must choose one door or the other. One door is guilt, and one is innocence. This cannot be deemed justice in the sense that most know it, but the king believes that his methods of trial are truly fair and warranted, which causes the definition of justice to become furtive under these terms. 

The meaning of that justice changes, however, when the princess learns which door holds the tiger and which holds the lady. The princess makes a conscious decision to determine not the guilt or innocence of her lover, but rather his fate based on her own desires, and the meaning of justice again shifts. Her jealous heart must make the decision whether he lives or dies. Thus, the nature of justice changes in a significant way as the story progresses. While justice in the king’s realm revolves around the unknown, for the princess it becomes a singular person’s informed decision. 

The Overwhelming Influence of Jealousy

Toward the end of the story, jealousy plays a major thematic role in the actions of the princess. When her lover is on trial, the princess learns which door holds the tiger and which holds the lady, but this does not necessarily mean she wishes to save his life. This is especially true when she learns which lady waits behind one of the doors. It is a lady she does not care for, and one she has been jealous of in the past. A wild, overwhelming envy takes her heart. She may lead her lover to the tiger to prevent his marriage to this lady. Though this seems unthinkable, the narrator reminds us that she is the king’s daughter and as such is semi-barbaric herself. This reminder suggests that jealousy is a barbaric instinct. Jealousy is irrational, to be sure, but would it lead her to indirectly killing the man she loves? This question is born out of jealousy, which has a great power in the world of this story and may affect the unknown outcome of the plot. If the story is a metaphor for normal life, it seems to say that the power of jealousy can be overwhelming and sometimes drives people to commit insanely irrational acts. 

The Sheer Power of Chance

Chance is a major factor in this story. Not only does chance decide the guilt or innocence of each accused criminal, but chance also decides whether or not they live or die. This sort of arbitrary justice is described as the fancy of the king, meaning he believes that a person is truly innocent if they choose the lady and truly guilty if they choose the tiger. This system amounts to nothing more than a coin flip to determine the person’s life-or-death fate. Traditional systems of justice do not rely on chance, but in the case of seemingly random but critical misfortunes such as illness, a coin flip may appear to produce the best chance for a positive outcome. This story points out the power of chance metaphorically. In our own lives, we make decisions based on chance. This often happens when we don’t know the facts or circumstances; rarely are our lives in the hands of others. The two doors in the story represent the fate of a human being. Whether they live or die is left to a single decision with an unknown outcome.

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