At the end of the short story, we all know that the princesses lover chose the right door. The question is, was that the door for the tiger, or the door for the bride? Well, she does not want to go to the tiger, as this passage shows, “she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the cruel fangs of the tiger!” (the lady, or the tiger) But she does not want her lover to chose the bride, either, as this passage shows,
“she
gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door
of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with
her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph; when she had seen him lead her forth, his whole
frame kindled with the joy of recovered life; when she had heard the glad shouts from the multitude,
and the wild ringing of the happy bells; when she had seen the priest, with his joyous followers,
advance to the couple, and make them man and wife before her very eyes; and when she had seen
them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the tremendous shouts of the
hilarious multitude, in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned!” (the lady, or the tiger) These passages from the story show that, to her, both of the doors are bad, because she does not want her lover to die by the tiger, but she does not want him to marry the woman, either, because she wants him for himself. It is extremely hard for her to decide, as this passage shows,
“Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semibarbaric futurity?
And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!” She is not sure, and as the story says, and even though she decided in an instant, it was after days and days of torture. (she did not want to decide) So anyway, if she is a more selfish person, who would not like to share her things, and would rather destroy them than share them, then she would probably have chosen the tiger, but if she is more selfless, and would share her things to not have them destroyed, she probably would have chosen the woman for her lover.