Question

In mrs. packletide's tiger , Saki tackles the human beings' fascination of wild game hunting as well as the timeless drive to keep up with the Bimberton's . Discuss

Answer 1

One of the many instances of jealousy, ill will and false social prestige is the driving force behind the story, Mrs. Packletide's quest to kill a tiger. Mrs. Packletide's pleasure and intention was to shoot a tiger because her movements and motives were largely governed by her dislike of Loona Bimberton. It was not that Mrs. Packletide's had suddenly experienced  the lust to kill or that she thought she would leave India safer and more wholesome by exterminating one animal of the wild species, her compelling motive was to best Bimberton at her own game. Loona Bimberton had been carried eleven miles in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator and she had been talking of nothing but that. 
Mrs. Packletide wanted to show that she was at the top of her game and had led a more adventurous life by killing a tiger, laying out the skin on her floor during a lunch thrown in honour of Loona Bimberton and present her with a tiger claw brooch, just to prove her daredevilry over the latter. If others were swayed by hunger and love, Mrs. Packletide's life was governed by purely selfish motives of ezhibiting herself over others. While Louisa Mebbin was no better, she demonstrates a deplorable moral conduct when she blackmails her employer over the incident of the tiger shooting and exploits her for personal gain.