Comment on the ending of the story 'The Tiger King'.
Answers
Answer:
The wooden toy tiger the king had got as a birthday present for his son had been
carved by an unskilled carpenter. It had a rough surface with tiny slivers of wood
standing up like quills all over it. One of those slivers pierced the Maharaja’s right
hand and although the king pulled it, his arm got infected. In four days, it developed
into a suppurating sore and spread all over the arm. The king died while being
operated upon.
The king’s death is ironical but not surprising for the reader who is, in fact, looking
forward to it. Having ‘killed’ the 100th tiger, the king is jubilant for he has fulfilled his
vow and disproved the prediction of the royal astrologer. He is now at ease for he
thinks he cannot die of a tiger’s attack. No wonder, he orders the ‘dead’ tiger to be
taken in a procession through the town and gets a tomb erected over it. All this while
he does not know that the 100th victim was not killed by him but by other hunters.
That is indeed quite ironical. Death is lurking around him and the king is unaware of
it. Again, it is ironical that a king who has killed 99 tigers and is bold and fearless dies
of a mere ‘sliver’ on the body of a wooden tiger. Thus, ironically death does come to
him from a tiger.