The Lady or the Tiger vs. One Friday Morning: Character Analysis
This essay compares two literary characters — the king's daughter from Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger" and Nancy Lee from Langston Hughes' "One Friday Morning" — examining how their contrasting social positions shape their likely actions and responses to adversity. The paper argues that Nancy Lee's marginalized status as an African-American in a discriminatory society leads her toward submission, while the king's daughter's dominant social standing and fierce temperament make her more likely to act with cruelty. Together, these characters illustrate how power and privilege influence individual behavior and decision-making under pressure.
- Introduction: Two Characters, Two Social Worlds: Thesis linking social position to predicted character behavior
- Nancy Lee and the Burden of Discrimination: Nancy Lee's talent, discrimination, and denied scholarship
- The King's Daughter and the Instinct to Dominate: King's daughter's cruelty and dominant social standing
- Social Position as a Predictor of Behavior: Contrast between Nancy's submission and the princess's dominance
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The essay establishes a clear comparative framework from the outset, using social position as the organizing lens for both characters.
- It draws direct textual inferences — such as the king's daughter sharing her father's cruelty — to support its claims without overreaching.
- The contrast between Nancy Lee's powerlessness and the king's daughter's dominance is kept consistent throughout, giving the argument structural coherence.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative character analysis, a foundational literary studies technique. By pairing two characters from different works and applying a single analytical criterion — social position — the author shows how context shapes character behavior. This approach allows the essay to make interpretive predictions about characters' motivations grounded in textual evidence.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thesis linking social position to predicted behavior. It then develops Nancy Lee's situation across two paragraphs, followed by two paragraphs on the king's daughter, before closing with a brief comparative conclusion. This alternating structure keeps both characters in dialogue throughout rather than treating them in full isolation.
Introduction: Two Characters, Two Social Worlds
Comparing the two characters — the king's daughter in Frank Stockton's The Lady or the Tiger and Nancy Lee in Langston Hughes' One Friday Morning — one can predict their actions by considering their social positions. This is possible because of the life patterns that both characters exhibit. Where one character occupies a position of privilege and dominance, the other is constrained by systemic discrimination, and these circumstances shape how each is likely to respond when faced with a defining moment.
Nancy Lee and the Burden of Discrimination
Nancy Lee is a character in One Friday Morning who believes in hard work to reach her goals. She is clearly talented as well. However, because she lives in a period during which people like her face discrimination, she is denied opportunities she fully deserves. This could easily discourage her, yet she manages to emerge as one of the best students in her class. Her work is so well appreciated that her teachers feel she should be entered into larger competitions through which she might earn a scholarship.
As expected, Nancy's work is good enough to earn her a scholarship — but she is denied the opportunity because she is African-American. She receives this news one Friday morning, just as she is about to deliver a speech to her schoolmates about receiving such an honor. Such a failure would be enough to discourage anyone after working hard and earning recognition. It is quite evident that after being denied this opportunity, Nancy would feel it is a futile exercise to pursue a scholarship within an oppressive, white-dominated society. Her story reflects the broader reality of racial discrimination in the United States during the era in which Hughes was writing.
References
Stockton, F. (2003). The Lady, or the Tiger. Retrieved from http://www.selfknowledge.com/ladyt10.htm
Hughes, L. (1996). "One Friday Morning." In A. S. Harper (Ed.), Short stories of Langston Hughes (with an introduction by Arnold Rampersad). New York: Hill and Wang.
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.