Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

The Tiger is a Bengal tiger who has ended up in the Baghdad Zoo after eating two children. The script describes him as “any age, although ideally he is older, scrappy, past his prime, yet still tough” (5). The character has a gruff and often profanity-laden personality with a dark and biting sense of humor. Although he is not necessarily a kind character—he bites off Tom’s hand and ultimately continues to kill for food through the end of the play, no matter the consequences—he does show compassion, such as when he takes the crying young girl to see the topiary garden.

Throughout the play, the Tiger struggles with his predatory nature and asks whether he is now being punished for his sins. He questions God’s existence and tries to figure out why he is still roaming around Baghdad in the afterlife. By the end of the play, he is no longer an atheist, but he doesn’t think highly of a God he sees as sadistic and unwilling to explain Himself to his creation. At the close of the play, the Tiger stops fighting his nature as a predator, settling in to wait for something he can kill and eat.