Short Fiction · Chapter
Mrs. Packletide's Tiger explained
Mrs.
What happens
Mrs. Packletide, motivated by rivalry with Loona Bimberton, arranges to shoot a tiger in India with minimal risk. She pays a village to provide an old, infirm tiger and a tethered goat as bait. During the hunt, she accidentally shoots the goat, and the tiger dies of heart failure from the gunshot. The villagers, eager for the reward, pretend she killed the tiger. Mrs. Packletide gains fame and a tiger-skin rug, but her paid companion, Louisa Mebbin, discovers the truth and blackmails her into buying a cottage. Mrs. Packletide gives up big-game hunting, citing heavy incidental expenses.
Themes in this chapter
Hypocrisy and Moral Facade
Mrs. Packletide pretends to be a brave hunter while actually shooting a goat and relying on a tiger's heart failure; the villagers and her companion collude in the deception.
Social Class and Status
The hunt is driven by Mrs. Packletide's desire to outshine Loona Bimberton, and the blackmail highlights the transactional nature of social relationships.
The Absurdity of Social Rituals
The elaborate, staged tiger hunt and the subsequent luncheon party and costume ball underscore the ridiculous lengths people go to for social prestige.
Characters to notice
- Mrs. Packletide
The protagonist who arranges a tiger hunt to outshine her rival Loona Bimberton, accidentally shoots a goat, and is later blackmailed by her companion.
- Louisa Mebbin
Mrs. Packletide's paid companion who notices the goat was shot instead of the tiger, and later blackmails Mrs. Packletide into buying her a cottage.
- Clovis Sangrail
Makes a witty suggestion about a primeval dance party at the County Costume Ball, teasing Mrs. Packletide about her Diana costume.
- Loona Bimberton
Mrs. Packletide's rival who recently flew in an aeroplane; she receives a tiger-claw brooch but declines the luncheon party.
Key passages
“The compelling motive for her sudden deviation towards the footsteps of Nimrod was the fact that Loona Bimberton had recently been carried eleven miles in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator, and talked of nothing else; only a personally procured tiger-skin and a heavy harvest of press photographs could successfully counter that sort of thing.”
Mrs. Packletide decided to hunt a tiger solely because her rival Loona Bimberton had become famous for an airplane ride, and she needed a tiger skin and media coverage to compete.
Reveals the petty jealousy driving the entire plot.
“Evidently the wrong animal had been hit, and the beast of prey had succumbed to heart-failure, caused by the sudden report of the rifle, accelerated by senile decay.”
It turned out the goat was shot, and the tiger died of a heart attack from the noise, made worse by its old age.
Highlights the ironic and anticlimactic outcome of the hunt.
“Mrs. Packletide indulges in no more big-game shooting. 'The incidental expenses are so heavy,' she confides to inquiring friends.”
Mrs. Packletide stops hunting big game, telling people the extra costs are too high.
Her excuse masks the real reason: the blackmail and embarrassment.