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The story ‘The Tiger King’ is about a vain and proud king of a small state. He is authoritative and haughty. He is Sir Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur, the Maharaja of Pratibandapuram. When he is told that his death will be caused by a tiger, he says, ‘Let Tigers beware!” He has excessive pride in himself. When he kills the first tiger, he sends for the state astrologer and shows him the dead tiger.
The Maharaja asked him, “What do you say now ?” But the astrologer warned him to be careful of the hundredth tiger. The Maharaja banned tiger hunting by anyone except him. He does not allow the British officer to hunt a tiger though he could have lost his throne. When there were no tiger left in the forests of his state, he married in the royal family of a state with a large tiger population. There were no tigers in his father in-law’s state, because he has been killing tigers there also. By that time he had killed ninety-nine tigers.
When he could not find the hundredth tiger, many officers lost their jobs because of his fury and obstinacy. He even ordered the Diwan to double the land tax. He misfired the hundredth tiger. But his men were afraid that if the Maharaja came to know that he had missed his target, they would lose their jobs. So they killed the tiger. Then there appears the dramatic irony or a dramatic situation opposite to what one expects in the story. Though the Maharaja killed ninety-nine tigers, yet he died because of a small wooden toy tiger. Thus we can say that the story is a satire on such persons in power who take excessive pride in themselves.