Satire, irony and wildlife

'The Tiger King' is a satire: it mocks the pride, vanity and selfishness of people in power, who think they can control everything, even fate.

It is full of dramatic irony: the reader knows what the character does not.

• We know the Maharaja's bullet missed the hundredth tiger, but he thinks he is safe.
• A harmless toy, bought for a child, becomes the deadly 'tiger'.
• The baby says 'Let tigers beware!', but it is the king who should beware.

The story shows how people around a powerful man behave. His servants obey him out of fear: the dewan, the hunters and the shopkeeper all deceive him to protect themselves.

It also shows the cruelty of killing animals for one man's vanity: a hundred tigers die for a king's vow, and a whole species disappears from a state.

Its message for today: we need a system that cares for people, the Earth and all life on it. Power and pride cannot defeat fate or nature.