Chapter: Mrs.

Packletide’s Tiger
Subject: English Literature
Class: X

Chapter-2: Mrs Packletide's Tiger ~ Saki

(Summary & Analysis)
Key Words
Nimrod a powerful seeker
Ostensibly as far as anyone knows
Propitious good
Rendezvous meeting
Tethered attached
Thumb nail pack of tolerance cards – little-estimated playing cards to play solitaire
Ambling walk or move at a moderate, loose pace
Tawny a brownish-orange or yellowish-chestnut colour
Senile normal for seniority
Book of examples Book demonstrating the shading examples of dashing. Stables with hues worn by
moves
Post-time the begin of steed race and due date for putting down a wager
Les Fauves French for ‘The Wild Animals’
Incidental optional

About the Author

• Hector Hugh Munro (1870 -1916)
• He wrote under the pen name Saki.
• He started his career as a journalist.
• His first book was ‘The Rise of the Russian Empire’.
• He was considered a master of the short story.
• He wrote a full-length play, two one-act plays, a historical study, a short novel, and a
fantasy about future German invasion and occupation of Britain

Character Sketch

1) Mrs. Packletide: She was a inefficient person whose only had one mission in life i.e., to outshine her
neighbour Loona Bimberton. When she got to
know that Loona Bimberton had been recently
carried eleven miles in an airplane by an
Algerian pilot, she starts feeling extremely
jealous. She had a strong urge to somehow run
down Loona‘s adventurous experience. So, she
decided to chase a tiger and obtain his skin. If she
would do this successfully, then her photographs
would definitely appear in the newspapers.

2) Loona Bimberton: She was basically the

neighbour of Mrs Packletide. She had similar
characteristics like her neighbour and liked to
show off everything. The recent thing that she did landed up disturbing Mrs Packletide immensely. She even
refused to go to the lunch meeting Mrs Packletide had thrown in her “honour” and also refused to look at any
newspaper for quite a long time as she dreaded reading about her neighbour’s accomplishments.

3) Miss Louisa Mebbin: She was Mrs Packletide’s paid friend who was remarkably sharp, shrewd and cash-
minded. Firstly, she made Mrs Packletide realize that the thousands of rupees she had spent on an old tiger
were too much. After the tiger was murdered, she even took advantage of the fact that the tiger was not killed
by Packletide’s bullet and blackmailed Mrs. Packletide by successfully extorting a weekend bungalow from
her.
Chapter: Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger
Subject: English Literature
Class: X

Summary
This story tells us about a woman's pleasure and intention to shoot a tiger. This short masterpiece is written by a
very renowned author -- Saki. The story was written at a time when there was a very little awareness about the
need to protect the tigers. The story deals with an important character named Mrs. Packletide whose motive was
to kill a tiger for her pleasure. This wasn't due to her lust to kill but it was created due to her close friend, Mrs.
Loona Bimberton. She is another character in the story that has recently shot a tiger and always talks about the
self-procured tiger skin. The name and fame she has got due to it had a major impact on Mrs. Packletide which
made her think of shooting a tiger.

Mrs. Packletide stared her journey to accomplish her motive and

has offered a thousand rupees for the opportunity to shoot a tiger
without any risk. The neighbouring village gets to know about the
news and accepts the challenge as it had a large number of tigers
in it. The precious amount of a thousand rupees had spread all over
the village and the villagers which included women and children
cloud be seen working of the challenge of grabbing this amount.
As it happens, a very elderly tiger is identified, who is no longer
able to chase down it prey, has taken to preying on the village's
domesticated animals, and the villagers would like to get rid of
him.

On a decided day, the villagers had constructed a platform in a

leafy tree for Mrs. Packletide, and tied a goat underneath it was kept as a prey for the tiger. To accomplish this
task more safely, Mrs. Packletide had appointed a paid companion, Miss. Louisa Mebbin. Now, Mrs. Packletide,
accompanied by her paid companion Louisa, waits through the night for the tiger to appear. At last when Tiger
appears, Mrs. Packletide fires, and the tiger falls. In a moment, all the natives could be seen excited to see the
tiger as dead.

But, the story takes a change when Ms. Mebbin

finds out that the goat was shot and had a wound
while no trace of a bullet or a wound could be found
on the tiger. It was later found out that the wrong
animal had been hit accidently. The tiger had died
due to a heart attack as it was very old and could not
bear the sudden bullet shot out of the rifle. Mrs.
Packletide was annoyed at this discovery but at the
same time she was convinced that she had shot a
tiger and accomplished her motive. The villagers
will not give away Mrs. Packletide's secret for the
thousand rupees. Mrs. Packletide assumes she can trust Louisa for the same reason.

The news then spreads as Mrs. Packletide’s as her picture frame reaches from the Texas Weekly Snapshot to the
Novoe Vermaya. But Louisa, who seems to felt herself underpaid and underappreciated for some time, informs
Mrs. Packletide that she'll require a little extra funding to keep her mouth shut. Specifically, what Louisa needs is
the money to buy a small cottage near Darking. People are very surprised when Louisa becomes a homeowner
and when Mrs. Packletide gives up her newfound hobby, big-game hunting. Mrs. Packletide blames the heavy
initial expenses as the main reason to quit her hobby.

Moral of the Story

One must not be jealous of others achievements and should always focus on own deeds.