The King's Inner Conflicts

In the 1500’s, the Medieval Era was ending and a new era of civilization had sprung in Ancient Rome and other Latin cultures. Countries all over Europe began to develop and create societies and governments. Frank R. Stockton argues the inner conflicts a princess has with a semibarbaric father and modernizing neighboring cultures to express fear and loyalty through a young maiden who falls in love with a peasant. Creating a malicious amphitheater for criminal punishment, the king watches his wicked subjects be “ [crushed] down [from] uneven places” (Stockton 14). The king’s maniacal nature influences his decisions for his kingdom and government. Finding joy in others suffering, the king devises a criminal system based on chance rather than justice. Along with creating an unlawful society, the king had a daughter with “a soul as fervent and imperious as his own” (Stockton 16). Being the apple of his eye, the princess becomes the closest and the most loyal to the king. The princess shares the same savage nature as her father; however, causing inner conflicts inside herself when she falls into love.
Unfortunately, the barbaric nature of the princess creates inner conflicts within herself as she must determine where her loyalty lies. A handsome man who’s only crime was loving a princess, forced into the area with two doors leading to his future. The princess’s “intense and fervid soul” forces her to attend the sentencing of her love and fear begins to grow inside the princess. It is the princess’s decision if the love her life will marry a beautiful commoner, or fiercely consumed by a tiger. Also, the princess becomes fearful of her father and how he will react if he catches the princess persuading the peasant into choosing a door. If the king believes the princess committed treason, she will suffer the chancing of the