Essay - In Frank Stockton's 'The Lady or the Tiger?' A Young...

In Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger?" a young man, the forbidden lover of a princess, is sentenced to ***** trial by ordeal: in front of thousands of onlookers, he must choose between two doors. Behind one waits a tiger, behind the other waits a lovely maiden. Only the princess herself possesses ***** knowledge that will save her ********** life, though in doing so, she will send him in***** the arms of another woman. Stockton leaves whether or not ***** saves her beau to the reader's imagination.

***** movie Gladiator also revolves around public spectacle and matters of justice and in*****. The ma***** character, Maximus, a respected general and loyal subject of ***** Ro*****n Empire, has been betrayed by Commodus, the Emperor. Sold into slavery, his family murdered, Maximus longs for revenge. He is forced to become a gladiator and use his strength to kill for the am*****ment of ***** mobs. At first, he resists this role, but his master, a former gladiator, reminds him ***** if he can get the people on his side, he will be invincible. ***** takes ***** advice to heart and works to make the people his ally. When he is taken to fight at the Coliseum in Rome, he comes face to ***** with his old enemy Commodus. Commodus l*****gs to have him killed, but Maximus is too popular for ***** to r*****k it. Eventually, Maximus is able to avenge *****self, though ***** does so at ***** cost of ***** own life.

***** short story, "The Lady or the Tiger?" and ***** movie, Gladiator, have many similarities. Both utilize public ***** as a w*****y to control and *****othe the citizens ***** a country; both address betrayal or the possibility of betrayal; ***** both involve a tyrant who arbitrarily wields the power of life and death over his citizens. However ***** no means are the two pieces completely alike. Whereas the princess's hapless lover in "The ***** or the Tiger?" faces a h*****rsh but fair trial, Commodus's challenges offer only the appearance of fairness. In truth, every competition is heavily stacked against Maximus. Another difference lies in the character's relationships with o*****rs. All of the characters in "The Lady ***** the *****?" ***** primarily concerned with themselves; the protagonists in Gladiator are *****ten more concerned ***** the well-being of others or with the greater good of the country. Finally, "***** Lady or the Tiger?" is deliberately ambiguous throughout; Gladiator is not.

***** the short ***** and the movie utilize spectacle to entertain ***** appease the masses. Stockton's father was a strict, conservative Method*****t minister who disapproved of all forms of light *****ment. Although Stockton himself became a ***** writer, it appears that some ***** ***** father's inherent suspicion of games and spectacles has crept into his wo***** (Golemba 18).

***** explains the perfection of ***** king's method ***** justice in "The Lady or the Tiger?" as follows: "Thus ***** ***** were enterta*****ed and ple*****ed, and the thinking part of the community could bring no