Mrs Packletides Tiger - Summary

Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger Is Chapter 2 of Class 10, English. This chapter is prescribed by the Central Board of secondary education. It is a chapter written by Hector Hugh Munro who is famously known as Saki. It is an extremely important chapter as it discusses the various themes that are important for students to understand like - The theme of pride, jealousy, insecurity, appearance, control, selfishness, and blackmail. These are the various themes that are discussed in Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger, students should get a comprehensive understanding of these themes as there is a good chance that they will be asked in the board examination. Vedantu has provided detailed study notes on every English chapter that is taught in Class 10 and that is prescribed by the Central Board of secondary education, students who want to get a good score in the examination can go through the notes provided by Vedantu.

About the Author

Hector Hugh Munro also known as HH Munro, his famous pen name is Saki. HH Munro was a British writer, author, playwright. He is considered a witty, mischievous writer who wrote macabre tales to satirize Edwardian society and culture. He was influenced by various writers such as Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, and Lewis Carroll. He served in the British Army from 1914 to 1916. The first book that was published was The Rise of The Russian Empire, he also wrote a short novel called The Unbearable Bassington.

Summary of Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger Summary

The article consists of Mrs. Packletide's Tiger's summary, a great story written by the author Hector Hugh Munro. The story is about Mrs. Packletide, who wants to be better than her neighbor Loona Bimberton in terms of everything from Pride to Courage. After learning that Loona fields 10 miles in a plane to shoot a tiger with an Algerian Pilot, Packletide becomes more jealous of her popularity and decides to shoot a tiger to flaunt her courage & pride in front of people. For this, she hires a paid companion Miss Mebin and some villagers.

After the Tiger Shooting

After successfully shooting the tiger, Packletide shows off his skin to everyone & gets famous in the town. But Miss Mebin learns that Tiger died due to a Heart Attack and not because of Bullet. She blackmails Packletide & demands her to give her a weekend house, which Packletide accepts. To celebrate her success, Packletide throws a party, but Loona doesn't come & Packletide realizes the price she paid for a fake Glory. Detailed Summary of Mrs. Packletide’s TigerAlways want to outrun each other, Mrs. Packletide (an envious woman) gets jealous when she finds out that an Algerian pilot flew Loona for eleven miles in an airplane. 

Plans

Mrs. Packeltides plans to outshine Loona Bimberton by shooting a tiger and flaunting its skin to people at her home. She realized that only a personally procured tiger skin and a massive harvest of Press photographs could successfully counter that sort of thing. Packletide had already arranged a scenario in her mind in which she would give lunch at her home and flaunt the tiger skin in front of Loona Bimberton and also how she would give a tiger claw brooch to Loona Bimberton on her birthday. She found a neighboring village that conducted game killing and used goats to act as bait to help her in the execution of her plan. For an amount of thousand rupees, the villagers agreed to lure the tiger in the hunting grounds for Mrs. Packletide to shoot it. Children were posted to guard the outskirts of the local jungle and to head the tiger back to the hunting grounds; cheap goats were left on the hunting ground to act as bait. Mrs. Packletide accompanies a paid companion, Miss Mebin, for hunting. Both the ladies sat on the stage, prepared with a rifle ready in her hand to shoot the tiger. An old tiger that was passing by was attracted by the goat placed on the hunting ground. As the tiger gradually walked towards the goat, Mrs. Packeltides aimed and shot him dead. The villagers started celebrating, Mrs. Packletide was very happy that she had shot the tiger, but Miss Mebbin noticed that the bullet had hit the goat, and the old tiger had no wound on its body and had died of a heart attack caused by the loud noise from the rifle. Packletide decides to hide the real cause to show off her glory.

After the Hunt

After the hunt, Packletide’s picture got featured in two weeklies. Loona Bimberton refused to look at the papers, repressing her emotions she replied with a letter of thanks for the tiger-claw brooch. She also declined to attend the lunch party. The tiger became popular; people even suggested Mrs. Packletide has a primeval dance party, at which everyone should wear the skin of the beast they have recently slain. By watching Packletide's popularity in newspapers, Mebin decides to blackmail her and asks her to give her a cottage. With no options left, Packletide fulfilled her demand and gifted her the cottage. Miss Mebbin named the cottage, “The Wild Beasts''. After realizing that she had paid more to hide the cause of death than the price she paid to kill the tiger, Mrs. Packletide decided never to indulge herself in big game shooting and confessed to her friends that she had to pay a high cost for it. Conclusion of Mrs. Packletide’s TigerEnvy is the worst thing that can destroy you.

Story Concept

In this lesson, Mrs. Packletide always gets jealous of her neighbor Loona’s achievements, and in an aim to outrun her, she paid a heavy price to greedy Miss Mebbin. In the same way, many times, we get jealous of others’ achievements and try to compete with others to show off, without thinking about the conclusions, which is not the right thing. One should not be jealous of others' achievements as you have to pay a high price for your Jealousy and Envy just like Mrs. Packletide did. Instead, you should focus on your abilities and try to improve yourself to be a better version.

Short Summary - Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger

Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger is taken from the complete short stories collection of HH Munro and the story is written in third person narrative by an unnamed narrator.

The story revolves around Mrs. Packletide as she is the protagonist, Mrs. Packletide is portrayed as an English woman and we can see the theme of jealousy by reading her character. Since the beginning of the story Mrs. Packletide feels weighed down by the achievements of Loona Bimberton and she feels that she no longer is the main focus in the social circles of which both Mrs. Packletide and Loona are a part. Loona Bimberton was recently conveyed in a plane by an Algerian pilot and therefore Mrs. Packletide wanted to do something that could outshine her and wanted to prove to society that she was no less than Loona Bimberton, her rival. in order to have the limelight, she wanted a tiger skin that she could flaunt at her home. She wanted her picture to be published in the press. She thought about How she would grab the limelight in the gathering held in Loona Bimberton’s respect in Curzon Street. She also wanted to have a tiger hook claw that she could flaunt on Loona’s next birthday. She had immense detestation for Loona.

In order to procure the tiger skin she planned the hunt very carefully, she even agreed to pay the villagers Rs.1000 so that they could help her shoot the tiger, they found an old and feeble tiger in the village and the villagers also agreed to help Mrs. Packletide as at the time, Rs.1000 was a good amount of money. The villagers and Mrs. Packletide together made various arrangements to get the tiger, goats were placed strategically To attract the tiger, the youngsters of the village were asked to stay back on the edges of the wilderness area to drive the tiger back to town, mothers of the village were asked not to sing lullabies to their children so that the tiger’s sleep doesn’t get disturbed.

Mrs. Packletide hired Miss Mebbin, They strategically staged a goat who had a very loud bleat in order to attract the tiger, after a while, the tiger showed up and started to walk towards the goat. Just then Mrs. Packletide fired a shot and the tiger collapsed. The villagers were very happy, they even had a little celebration by beating drums and singing. Mrs. Packletide was also very happy.

Miss Mebbin is portrayed as an extremely clever and calculating woman, she observed that Mrs. Packletide’s bullet had shot the goat and the tiger had died due to a heart attack, and the tiger didn’t have any bullet wounds on his body. Mrs. Packletide was disappointed but she was happy with the tiger skin so the villagers agreed to keep this a secret as they were happy with the cash they received.

Mrs. Packletide’s picture was then published in the press and Loona Bimberton got jealous of Mrs. Packletide, however, Loona coldly acknowledged the tiger claw brooch. Miss Mebbin decided to blackmail Mrs. Packletide as she wanted to get some money out of her, she told Mrs. Packletide that she would keep her mouth shut about the death of the tiger if Mrs. Packletide purchases her a weekend house near Dorking. Mrs. Packletide had to surrender to her blackmail as she had no other choice. Miss Mebbin named the cabin – “the wild beasts”. After the blackmail, Mrs. Packletide gave up hunting and she added that “unplanned costs were too heavy for such kind of hunting”.