The king seems to prefer when things are going wrong so that he can fix the problem.
Although the king claims that his kingdom runs smoothly, he runs it in a completely autocratic way. Everything runs smoothly because he is the one making all of the decisions and no one dares defy him or they will get thrown into the amphitheater.
When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but, whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still …
The king seems to actually enjoy trouble, because it gives him something to do. He is not just a little bit sociopathic. His trial system is a perfect example. He created what he considers a perfectly fair system, and it is fair because he says it is fair. He believes that the outcome is ruled by fate.
This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.
The reason the system is so perfect, in his mind, is that a person has to choose a door. He believes the innocent will choose the lady and the guilty will choose the tiger. Actual evidence of innocence or guilt matters nothing to him and has no place in the trial. He believes he is right, and his system is just, so that should be enough for everyone.
Semi-barbarism seems to mean that the king likes to toy with his subjects. He has created a source of amusement not just for himself but for them. The spectacle of the trial demonstrates this. As much as the king claims to want things to run smoothly, he clearly prefers drama.
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