Short story: The Lady, or the Tiger?

Objective & content

The famous story with no ending, The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton (1882), retold at B1+. The language is simplified, the story is not: the open ending is Stockton's. In a strange kingdom, an accused man must open one of two doors in the king's arena. Behind one waits a hungry tiger; behind the other, a bride he must marry at once. When the young man who loves the princess is put on trial, she finds out the secret of the doors, and with one small movement of her hand she shows him which door to open. But she hates the lady behind the other door. By the end, pupils can follow a story of about 1,750 words, find the reasons in the text for both possible endings, and defend their own answer.

Pedagogical guide

The story runs over four pages, set like a novel, with one drawing on each page; no picture shows the tiger or the lady, so nothing gives the ending away. Page 5 holds the tasks. Six choice and true or false questions check the story. "Find the clues" sends pupils back into the text: why the people loved the arena, why the princess hated the lady, then one reason why she might send her lover to the tiger and one why she might send him to the lady. A box gives three verb forms from the story (the past passive, the past perfect and the past continuous), then pupils complete four sentences from the story with them. In the last task, pupils work in groups: they decide what came out of the door, find two reasons in the story, and write the ending. Page 6 is the answer key with the teacher notes. There is no right answer to the last question: any answer that pupils support with the text is accepted.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "If you could choose between two doors, and you did not know what was behind them, how would you choose?"
2. (20 min) Read the story aloud, or pupils read in pairs. Stop after "she had found out the secret of the doors." and ask "What do you think she will do with the secret?" Stop again after "he went to the door on the right and opened it." and take a class vote: the lady, or the tiger? Then read the end.
3. (10 min) Pupils answer the choice questions, then the "Find the clues" questions; check together.
4. (10 min) Pupils read the box and complete the four sentences.
5. (15 min) In groups, pupils decide on the ending, find two reasons in the story and write it; groups read their endings aloud, then the class votes again.

Adaptations

[S] Read the story over two lessons, two pages at a time, and go through the words they may need first (arena, accused, guilty, innocent, trial, jealousy). Pupils can answer the choice questions and two of the clues only.

[A] Pupils hold a short debate in two teams, "the lady" and "the tiger", each using quotes from the story.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil, in colour or black and white: pages 1 to 5 are for pupils, page 6 is the answer key. Pupils should know the past simple and the past continuous.