Mrs Packletides Tiger

People hunt because-

● To protect themselves from being attacked and wild animals

● Poaching for animal skin

● Hunting was to be a game

● To earn fame

● Tiger sin and head were supposed to be precious for interior decorations

(a) Mrs. Packeltide couldn’t allow Loona Bimberton to enjoy limelight and press photographs than she herself. So, she decided to kill a tiger and come into the limelight.

(b) The greed for power, attention, and lust for limelight had turned her so blind to humanity that she doesn’t care for the way to achieve her ends. She is intensely selfish and inhumane.

(c) The narrator is extremely sarcastic in her tone. The lust for fame and popularity in Mrs. Packeltide is pointed by the narrator in a mocking fashion.

(d) Mrs. Packeltide was not completely successful in her attempt as she almost scared the tiger while just killing a goat in the end.

(e) The story narrates the incident of Mrs. Packeltide who in the process to attain attention and fame decided to kill a tiger and ultimately comes up killing a goat. Her inhumanity is what the narrator tries to stress in the text.

Please read from the book.

Mrs. Packeltide had heard about Loona Bimberton’s fame and how she had acquired such haughtiness after possessing a tiger skin. To put her down and attract masses towards her, Mrs. Packeltide decided to kill a tiger to reduce Loona Bimberton’s fan following.

Mrs. Packeltide was dissatisfied with Loona Bimberton’s fan following and haughtiness and wanted to demean her publicly. Thus, she throws a party to let her down before others.

To make Loona Bimberton realize her superior position than her and to bring her down before others, Mrs. Packeltide decided to gift her a brooch made of tiger claws.

The tiger shooting arranged in the village was a paid one. The villagers were excited to win prizes for shooting and so a paid arrangement for the shooting was organized.

The villagers arranged for a tiger who would be less dangerous and an easy hunt for Mrs. Packeltide. Thus, they brought a tiger that usually fed on cattle and was less violent.

The villagers kept their cattle in the open for days for the tiger to hunt them down without much effort of going too far off places. They even arranged a platform for Mrs. Packeltide to make it convenient for her to kill the tiger.

Miss Mebbin was hired by Mrs. Packeltide to provide her with the company during the shooting.

Mrs. Mebbin was an extreme opportunist with a manipulative nature, who tried to convince Mrs. Packeltide not to pay the villagers as much for the old tiger.

The given statement is actually an instance of sarcasm. Mrs. Packeltide maintained a very bad shot by scaring the tiger to death and killing a goat instead. However, the villagers kept it a secret in order to not let the money wipeout of their hands and tried to spread the news that Mrs. Packeltide had actually hunt down a tiger.

After the shot, Miss Mebbin shouted out the fact that the tiger had not been shot. Instead, she had killed a goat.

Miss Mebbin is an extremely cunning person and an opportunist who knows how to utilize things to her benefit. Thus, she made a hue and cry about Mrs. Packeltide’s failure in the hope that she could later exploit her through this.

Mrs. Packeltide was infuriated with her as she didn’t expect her to spread her news of failure in such a manner.

The villagers were only concerned about the money. So, they decided to keep Mrs. Packeltide’s words and remained silent after watching Mrs. Packeltide’s failure lest she should deny to give them their amount.

Mrs. Packeltide is a person who can go to extents to attain fame, pleasure and the sir of superiority. Though she couldn’t kill the tiger, yet she bribed the villagers well enough to keep her failure a secret and her victory of killing grand tiger publish in a well-known newspaper. Thus, she has achieved her heart’s desire.

Miss Mebbin was an important witness to the true incident and had made large cry over Mrs. Packeltide’s failure in order to prise out the money for the cottage from her through blackmailing her.

Miss Mebbin is a humorous character in the way she used the cottage to plant tiger lilies in the memory if the tiger that helped her to extract the cottage from Mrs. Packeltide.

The given words have been spoken by Mrs. Packeltide. She used these words as an excuse for hunting.

Mrs. Packeltide seems to excuse herself from tiger hunting in order to avoid the large sum of secondary expenses. Though we know for sure that the matter is something else.

The tiger shooting organized by the villagers was a petty issue after all as the villagers were already carrying the knowledge about the weakness and frailty of the tiger. In order to reduce the risk of tiger shooting, they had intentionally got a tiger that was old and senile so that it wouldn’t create much violence. The villagers had even got their children to keep the tiger in the outskirts of the village where it wouldn’t get much to eat and would sulk in its performance thereby making it an easy catch for Mrs. Packeltide to shoot it down. However, the children had left some goats near the tiger so that it might feed on them and not die of starvation.

In this text, the narrator adopts the technique of satire to mock the characters and to expose their particular idiosyncrasies. Mrs. Packeltide’s singular intention was to prevent Loona Bimberton’s growing fame and popularity. Loona Bimberton too was insecure of Mrs. Packeltide’s limelight and wanted to capture a share of it, she even turned down Mrs. Packeltide’s invitation for a lunch party organized in her honour. Miss Mebbin is another character in this story who adopts an opportunistic stance and tries to blackmail Mrs. Packeltide with the truth of the tiger shooting in order to procure a cottage from her. The writer skillfully satirizes these characters to expose them to their barest possibilities to show the possible streaks of human nature and behavior present in society.

Humans are innately greedy for power, superiority, limelight and the gaze of others. Mrs. Packeltide offered thousand rupees to the villagers to help her get an easy prey and to keep mum even after knowing her failure in shooting the tiger. She even settles for a paid witness to her tiger shooting. However, the plan goes wrong and she had to bribe Miss Mebbin, the opportunist witness to not let out the news to the public. Miss Mebbin, finding the situation suitable goes to the extent of blackmailing Mrs. Packeltide in procuring a cottage from her.

In this text, the narrator adopts the technique of satire to mock the characters and to expose their particular idiosyncrasies. Mrs. Packeltide’s singular intention was to prevent Loona Bimberton’s growing fame and popularity. Loona Bimberton too was insecure of Mrs. Packeltide’s limelight and wanted to capture a share of it. She even turned down Mrs. Packeltide’s invitation for a lunch party organized in her honor. The language of her letter of thanks sent to Mrs. Packeltide very clearly stated her repressed emotions. Miss Mebbin is another character in this story who adopts an opportunistic stance and tries to blackmail Mrs. Packeltide with the truth of the tiger shooting in order to procure a cottage from her. Besides, the whole affair of tiger hunting is conjoined with satire. Instead of killing a weak tiger, Mrs. Packeltide ends up shooting a goat while making the tiger die in fright. The writer skillfully satirizes these characters to expose them to their barest possibilities to show the possible streaks of human nature and behavior present in society

The writer has laced the instances in the text with intense satire and succeeding humor. The character sketches of Mrs. Packeltide, Miss Mebbin, and Loona Bimberton absolute materialistic. selfish, inhumane fools who have nothing to do except searching for means to get to the limelight with the easiest means and resources. The instance of tiger hunting is extremely funny where the woman is unable to shoot a lean and weak tiger and ends up killing a goat. Another crude instance is the case of Miss Mebbin who tries to extract the cottage from Mrs. Packeltide in return for keeping mum about the true incident.

Mrs. Packletide - (i) Competitive; (ii) Manipulative; (iii) Vain

Louisa Mebbin – (i) Stingy; (ii) Materialistic (iii) Shrewd (iv) Spiteful

Loona Bimberton – (i) Jealous; (ii) Spiteful

(a) Mrs. Packletide wanted to shoot a tiger

(b) Mrs. Packeltide had already arranged in her mind about the lunch that she would throw in the honour of Loona Bimberton while displaying the tiger-skin rug and extensive talks on the tiger hunt.

(c) Mothers, returning home with their babies after work, walked past the jungle silently lest the tiger should wake from sleep.

(d) Louisa Mebbin was very particular about monetary issues irrespective of nationality or denomination.

(d) It was obvious that the wrong animal had been hit as the tiger had died out of heart attack with the bullet shooting an innocent goat instead.

(e) Neither did Loona Bimberton go through the newspaper for weeks nor did she read the letter of thanks for the gift of the tiger-claw brooch written in a form that could conceal her true emotions.

Some oxymorons listed in the story are-

Over-much risk, elaborate consciousness, gladly connived, pardonably annoyed, immeasurably nearer.

As Mrs. Packeltide, I must showcase my fame and power before the world. I was highly jealous of the growing popularity and the applause that Loona Bimberton was getting. Thinking about ways o divert the attention towards myself, I suddenly came up with the thought of tiger hunt to earn a token of bravery in my neighborhood. I gathered the villagers to get a lean tiger to serve as an easy prey to my plan. All was arranged except that I had to get a witness to my shooting. I got Louisa Mebbin to serve as a witness. However, as I shot the bullet, it went past the tiger which died out of fright and the bullet hurt an innocent goat. Highly embarrassed, I ordered the villagers to stay mum about this and spread the news of my valiance. Louisa turned out to be a blackmailer and followed me to extract money for keeping quiet about the situation. Thus, I had to shell out a large sum of money for a cottage and hand it over to her. Apparently, the entire plan cost me more than the actual result expected out of it.

(1) Village head: I just heard that Memsahib wanted to hunt a tiger

Mrs. Packeltide: Yes. But I want a lean and thin one.

Village head: I got it. A tiger has been seen preying on our cattle and is now without any food to satisfy its thirst. It roams around, looking thin and weak. We shall get that for you, Memsahib.

Mrs. Packeltide: Fine. Arrange that and you will get ten thousand rupees from me.

Village head: As you wish, Memsahib. We shall see to it and arrange for the platform for your shooting.

2. Miss Mebbin: I have found a week end cottage atDarking and I’m thinking of buying. What do you say?

Mrs. Packeltide: Go ahead. What am I to do for it?

Miss Mebbin: Nothing much. I was wondering how Loona would be elated on knowing about your tiger shooting?

Mrs. Packeltide: Is it a blackmail?

Miss Mebbin: Not at all. I was just thinking of retiring to some calm corner and wondering if you could help me out.

Mrs. Packeltide: And what if I don’t act accordingly? Will you give out the truth and tell everyone that the bullet frightened the tiger to death while hitting an innocent goat?

Miss Mebbin: Let's see. May be. I don’t know.

Mrs. Packeltide: fine. Tell me your amount and remember not to open your mouth henceforth.

Miss Mebbin: Never ever. And why should I? I just want some peace.

3. Lady friend: What’s’ that lying on the table?

Loona Bimberton: Oh, nothing. Just a tiger claw brooch sent by a friend.

Lady friend: And who is this friend of yours?

Loona Bimberton: Some Mrs. Packeltide

Lady friend: Is this that woman whom we saw in the newspapers some weeks ago?

Loona Bimberton: Oh, yes. That poor lady! Somehow managed to hunt down a tiger in the jungles.

Lady friend: Very courageous though.

Loona Bimberton: Not exactly. I doubt whether it was really she herself who shot the tiger or she made someone do it for her.

Lady friend: And why so?

Loona Bimberton: Mrs. Packeltide is not at all a courageous lady. She must have duped people and bribed someone to do it just to put me down.

they view it as a sign of bravery and personal achievement

of the declining lion population

they bear the cubs

make it angry

the mane, tail, and claws

the strongest warrior