Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger – Saki
Bit/Bits
·
Mrs. Packletide was
always in a struggle to defeat her society rivals such as Mrs. Loona Bimberton.
·
Recently Mrs. Loona
Bimberton flew in an Algerian airplane. Everyone discussed this and Loona
became the centre of attraction and subject of talk.
·
Packletide was
forgotten – like the frog felt in the poem ‘Frog and the Nightingale.’
·
She decided to do
anything to get her fame back from Loona.
·
She thought of hunting
a tiger that is unusual even in these days. Mrs. Packletide was very
much smart in her decision to kill the tiger.
·
She made her tiger
hunt easy by choosing an infirmed, too aged tiger.
·
She paid a big amount
of money to the village headman to get his people to assist her till the end of
the much publicised hunt. Besides, she got the help of Miss Louisa Mebbin
to assist her for the tiger hunt and be a witness of her brave act.
·
Most of the villagers
readily helped Mrs. Packletide for money while some of them liked this idea for
the fun and adventure of hunting.
·
There were chances
that the tiger could have run away from the jungle where Mrs. Packletide had
decided to hunt it down. If it ran away, then the villagers would miss their
chance to assist Mrs. Packletide to hunt it and thereby their reward. To keep
the tiger in the same forest, children were posted on the outskirts of the
jungle.
·
The tiger that Mrs.
Packletide decided to hunt was aged and infirm. It was not able to hunt
anything that was bigger than a hare. To keep the tiger in the same jungle
and to stop it from running away, goats that bleated at all times were
left near the tiger to.
·
The goat’s bleat was
persistent. It was a gift that the goat possessed such a bleat because it could
easily attract the tiger to the tree on which Mrs. Packletide was waiting to
kill it.
·
The tiger that Mrs.
Packletide chose to hunt was extremely aged and infirmed. Mothers carrying
their babies back home were asked not to sing songs for their babies because it
was believed that the tiger could be scared away if it heard them sing.
·
Miss Lousa Mebbin was
a shrewd woman. She used to assist people for money and traveled abroad with
them for any amount of time. She pretended to be a wellwisher to anyone she
assisted but in fact she exploited them in all possible ways.
·
Miss Louisa Mebbin was
shrewd woman who pretended to be a protective elder sister. She behaved with
the people she assisted in their tasks as if she didn’t want them incur any
loss of any kind as long as she served them. Her asking Mrs. Packletide not to
shoot the goat in case it is not eaten by the tiger is an instance of this.
·
When the tiger
appeared, Mebbin was thinking about selling the leftover of the tiger when it
is killed by Mrs. packletide. She had come to the sad conclusion that there
could be no profit out of selling the remnants of the dead tiger.
·
The aged and infirmed
tiger didn’t attack the goat instantly when it sighted it tied to a tree.
Instead, the tiger lay down as if to take a brief rest before eating the goat.
·
Miss Mebbin always exhibited
such an attitude in front of the people she served that they felt that she was
their well-wisher. To give Mrs. Packletide a similar impression, she
suggested that the goat not killed so as to save Mrs. Packletide’s money.
·
The natives had been
offered an amount of rupees one thousand for helping Mrs. Packltide kill the
tiger and because of this they were excited to hear the news of the tiger being
shot.
·
Miss Louisa Mebbin
discovered that the tiger had died of heart failure. This discovery annoyed Mrs.
Packletide because she feared that people would soon come to know the truth
about real hunting story if Louisa Mebbin opened her mouth. Her sudden
annoyance is pardonable because she had all the reasons to feel annoyed about
such an unpleasant and disturbing discovery which threatened her hard earned
fame.
·
The villagers were
offered and later paid an amount of Rupees one thousand for helping Mrs.
Packletide shoot a tiger.
·
They were to get the
oldest of the tigers, they were to make sure that the tiger didn’t run away,
they had to provide the tiger’s food in time and they had to hide in ambush in
case the tiger escaped while being hunted.
·
For this enormous
reward, the villagers did everything as expected and more.
·
Louisa Mebbin was the
master player in the Packletide episode. Whether she had in her mind this
blackmail plan or not, she was aware of the big disgrace the pompous woman was
going to suffer if the truth was out. Later, with a view to make Packletide pay
for her dream villa, she told her that everyone would be amused if they knew
the tiger had not really been shot dead. It was intended to make the lady know
that she was prepared to break the truth to the public.
·
Doubtlessly Miss
Mebbin intended to betray Mrs. Packletide if the latter had refused to pay for
the villa. By announcing to the public that she had been Mrs. Packletide’ paid
companion during the tiger hunt and that she had witnessed the tiger faking
unhurt by the gun and that the tiger died of a heart failure, she could bring
Packletide to a great disgrace.
·
Mrs. Packletide was
never heard in connection with another tiger hunt.
·
What cost her for the
tiger hunt with Louisa Mebbin was more than she could bear.
·
The shock it gave her
and the loss of a big amount of money to save her face drew her life out.
·
Though the tiger hunt
had brought enormous name to Mrs. Packletide, yet when she faced the media
cameras, she felt her heart very light, frightened by the anxiety about the
fact that Miss Louisa Mabbin was aware of the nature of the tiger’s death.
·
If Miss Mebbin told
the truth, the fat would be in the fire.
·
Miss Louisa Mebbin had
in her mind a plan to make Mrs. Packletide pay for a villa that she longed to
buy. She could do that only if the neighborhood learnt that Mrs. Packletide’s
bullet had missed the tiger and that it had been a lie. Once the news of the
tiger hunt spread out, she could easily threaten Mrs. Packletide to buy the
villa for her. By declaring in the local language that the tiger hadn’t been
killed by the gun, Miss Mebbin was securing a large number of witnesses for her
to stand against Mrs. Packletide.
·
It is nowhere hinted
that Louisa Mebbin had preplanned the idea of blackmailing Packletide. This
idea struck her somewhere in the course of her assisting the pompous lady.
Knowing that, well, Louisa Mebbin was an opportunist, the lady could sacrifice
anything for a name, Louisa devised this idea of profiting something for
herself – a villa as it turned out at the end.
·
Yes, Miss Mebbin had
devised the idea of blackmailing Packletide from the very beginning. She was
such a character who drew the goodwill of the rich people for whom she was a
paid companion. By pretending to be angered at the mere loss of money that her
employers used to spent and by advising them to avoid such extravagance, she
won their trust. This showy attitude is a primary evidence against her. Her
loudly declaring to the local villagemen that the tiger was not shot dead,
supports the suspicion that she was convincing the local witnesses the truth
for a later benefit. If she didn’t have this betraying plan in mind, she would
have threatened Mrs. Packletide before the luncheon party. Having waited for
the party to pass, she got a better stand to threaten her prey.
·
It is nowhere hinted
that Louisa Mebbin had preplanned the idea of blackmailing Packletide. This
idea struck her somewhere in the course of her assisting the pompous lady.
Knowing that, well, Louisa Mebbin was an opportunist, the lady could sacrifice
anything for a name, Louisa devised this idea of profiting something for
herself – a villa as it turned out at the end.
·
Miss Mebbin had
devised the idea of blackmailing Packletide from the very beginning.
·
She was such a
character who drew the goodwill of the rich people for whom she was a paid
companion.
·
By pretending to be
angered at the mere loss of money that her employers used to spent and by
advising them to avoid such extravagance, she won their trust.
·
This showy attitude is
a primary evidence against her. Her loudly declaring to the local village-men
that the tiger was not shot dead, supports the suspicion that she was
convincing the local witnesses the truth for a later benefit. If she didn’t
have this betraying plan in mind, she would have threatened Mrs. Packletide
before the luncheon party. Having waited for the party to pass, she got a
better stand to threaten her prey.
Character Traits
Packletide
1.
Competitive
2.
High-headed
3.
Ambitious
4.
Jealous
5.
Manipulative
6.
Overbearing
7.
Patronizing
8.
Condescending
Louisa Mebbin
1.
Opportunistic
2.
Mercenary
3.
Fawning
4.
Hypocrite
5.
Conniving
6.
Money-minded
7.
Calculative
8.
Sly
9.
Crafty
10.
Stingy
11.
Cunning
12.
Witty
13.
Scheming
14.
Presumptuous
