Summary of chapter Mrs packletides tiger?
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Summary: This story is written by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro). This story is set up in the colonial period in India. The main topic of this story is ‘tiger hunt’ but the tiger hunt has been used to satirically depict the sense of grandeur which the British people had while their stay in India. This story is about one Mrs. Packletide who wants to kill a tiger so that she can tell her tales of bravery and glory. She also plans to display her prized possessions; like tiger skin and items made from various parts of a tiger. She has an experienced assistant who has worked on similar assignments in the past. She also has villagers who are willing to work in the hope of getting paid in cash. The story shows various details of all the preparations which used to go on before the actual hunting. The author tries to make a fun at selection of an old tiger which has lost its vigour to hunt a suitable prey. The story ends with an irony because the bullet hits the goat; instead of hitting the tiger. But the tiger dies in spite of not being hit by the bullet. But Mrs. Packletide plans to come up with suitable stories of her gallantry. Her assistant Miss Mebbin blackmails her and extracts enough money to buy a nice cottage. Loona Bimberton is does not appear to be happy at Mrs. Packletide’s achievement.
Mrs. Packletide, the main character of the story, is jealous of Loona Bimberton, who talked of nothing else but her recent travel in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator. Mrs. Packletide became jealous and decided at that moment to kill a tiger and gift a tiger-claw brooch to Loona on her next birthday. For this, she even offered one thousand rupees to the villagers to arrange the shooting of a tiger, without much risk or exertion. The villagers were excited at the prospect of one thousand rupees and were ready to help her.
The great night arrived when the killing was to be done. Mrs. Packletide, along with a paid companion, Miss Mebbin, crouched on a platform constructed specially for this purpose on a tree.
A goat was fastened as bait for the tiger and everyone started waiting for the tiger. They had to wait for sometime and then they heard the footsteps of the tiger.
Mrs. Packletide fired a shot using her rifle and the tiger was dead. Everyone rejoiced over the killing, when they came down from the tree. Miss Mebbin drew Mrs. Packletide’s attention towards the bullet wound on the goat and not the tiger.
Actually, the bullet from the rifle had hit the goat which died instantly whereas, the tiger being an old one, just succumbed to heart-failure at the mere sound of a bullet. Anyhow, Mrs. Packletide was everywhere on the pages of the weekly newspapers and she sent the tigerclaw brooch to Loona Bimberton also. As for Miss Mebbin, she never forgot about the bullet-injury on the goat due to which Mrs. Packletide had to do something so that she didn’t give her away. She had to buy a weekend cottage for her near Darking in which Louisa Mebbin lived happily.