In the story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” written by Frank R. Stockton, it shows a cruel and somewhat unfair justice system. The accused person would be forced to choose one of the 2 rooms brought in front of him, one with a tiger who would eat him alive, and one with a bride whom the person has to marry. This justice system was really unfair and not only can criminals escape while innocents get killed, but even more like relationships, social status and the well-being of the people could get affected.
First of all, the person who has to choose will either die or marry somebody that they might not necessarily like. However in this trial, an innocent who didn’t commit a crime could end up choosing the tiger, which will lead him to his demise. But a criminal that killed or stole could choose the bride and stay alive. This justice system is based purely on luck and is shouldn’t be referred as a “justice” system, but rather a game of chance that revolves around death and life. This would make many things in society unbalanced and if this “justice” system shall be continued in this land there will be a imbalance of the innocent and the criminals.
Second, if a young person about 19 to 24 was to be in a relationship, but got accused then there will be 2 possibilities. The person might die, or be forced into marriage. The dying part will be simple, he would just die, but if he was to be married, the relationship he had before would basically completely get ruined. This causes conflicts and isn’t really healthy for a good society. Imagine that groups split up just because their sons and daughters weren’t able to marry and hate will stir up. This society would be a mess!
Lastly, the social status of individuals would be messed up. If a peasant or laborer was to marry a high class women, than his status would go up. Even thought this might sound good, it honestly isn’t. If the lower class has to die or marry (which brings them to higher class), then there will be no lower class. That will cause a great disturbance in society, economy and money wouldn’t have the same worth and different jobs will not be maintained. Who would do the labor or handle the farms? The higher class will never do that but, there is no lower class. Everything will be in mayhem and a whole empire will fall, just because of an absurd system.
All in all, the justice system which is shown in “The Lady, or The Tiger” is really absurd and has many downsides other than injustice. I hope to never see this kind of system in our society today and hope that i never will. We learn from this system that justice and rights for the people should be dealt fairly and handled with caution.