Aunt
Jennifer's Tigers
By Adrienne Rich
About the Poet
Adrienne Rich was an American poet and essayist.
She was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 16, 1929. She was brought up in a
well-off family. She was the elder of two daughters. Her father was
a doctor and her mother was a music composer. In 1953, she married Harvard
University economist Alfred H. Conrad.
She attended Radcliffe College, graduating in
1951, and was selected by W.H. Auden for
the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize. Two years later, she published her
second volume of poetry, The
Diamond Cutters. After having three sons before the age of thirty,
Rich gradually changed both her life and her poetry. Throughout the 1960s, she
wrote several collections. The content of her work became increasingly
confrontational—exploring such themes as women’s role in society, racism, and
the Vietnam War.
In 1997, she refused the National Medal of
Arts, stating that “I could not accept such an award from White House because
the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical
politics of this administration.” The same year, Rich was awarded the
Academy’s Wallace Stevens Award for outstanding and proven mastery in the art of
poetry. She died on March 27, 2012, at the age of eighty-two.
Poem: Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a
screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer's finger
fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her
terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
Introduction
Adrienne Rich was brought up in a well-off
family. Rich felt dominated by her father’s strong personality while
growing up. It was he who most guided her as a young poet. This wasn’t always
to her liking as he expected her to write her poems his way. When Rich was
growing up men dominated and women were expected to become dutiful wives in
their adult lives. All these elements may have influenced the picture of
marriage Rich drew in this poem. At the heart of the poem is an image of a
husband who controls and frightens his wife. Rich wrote a lot of poems based on
everyday experience. One topic she often featured was the tension, women felt
due to being dominated by their husbands. In ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ Rich is
mocking the weakness of Aunt Jennifer and the clout and authority of Jennifer’s
husband in their marriage.
Summary
In the poem 'Aunt Jennifer's Tigers' a woman
expresses her suppressed feelings through her art. Aunt Jennifer is the victim
of the male-dominated society. She has no one to tell her mental and physical
pain. She makes a picture to convey her deep feelings. The speaker describes
the tigers which her aunt produced on the panel. They are set in motion. They
are moving quickly by raising the front legs and jumping forwards on the back
legs. In the green jungle they look free, bright, brave, fearless and
magnificent.
There are men sitting under the tree, but the
tigers do not care for them. They move on to their goal boldly and smoothly.
Jennifer finds it difficult to make pictures by using the ivory needle. She is
tired of doing the household work after she got married. She can’t get herself
involved in her artistic work. She has to do it in her leisure time. Even then
she has to be sure whether her husband is watching her or not. So her hands are
terrified. She will not be free from fear until she dies. She will be dominated
by her husband. She will die, but her art will express her desire to move
proudly and fearlessly like the tigers she has made.
Main points
1. In this poem, the poet addresses the
constraints of married life, experienced by a woman.
2. Aunt Jennifer weaves tigers into the
panel. These tigers are brave & have no fear of men.
3. Aunt Jennifer is terrified by her
dominating husband. Her finger flutters due to the mental suppression. She
is not happy with her married life.
4. She will die but her art will express her
desire to move proudly and fearlessly like the tigers she has made.
Important Extracts
1. Read the extract
given below and answer the questions that follow:
Aunt
Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright
topaz denizens of a world of green.
They
do not fear the men beneath the tree:
They
pace in sleek chivalric certainty.”
Q1.
What does prancing tigers symbolize?
Ans. Prancing tigers
are a symbol of the spirit of freedom within Aunt Jennifer which remains
subdued.
Q2.
Why are they referred to as ‘denizens of a world of green’?
Ans. The tigers are
the dwellers of the green forest so they are referred to as denizens.
Q3. What
qualities of the ‘tigers’ are highlighted here?
Ans. Fearlessness and ferocity
of the tigers are highlighted here. Aunt Jennifer’s nervousness and
timidity are in sharp contrast to wild ferocity of the tigers who are not
afraid of hunting men. Unlike Aunt Jennifer, the tigers fear nothing.
Q4. Explain;
“They pace in sleek chivalric certainty”.
Ans. The movement of the
tigers are sleek, stealthy, sure, majestic and elegant. They are sure of
their purpose. Gallant and confident, they move ahead fearlessly undeterred by
any obstacles or hindrances.
2. Read
the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering
through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding
band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.”
Q1.
Why do Aunt Jennifer’s fingers flutter through her wool?
Ans. Aunt Jennifer
lives in constant fear of her husband. She feels so nervous and
terrified that her hands shake and flutter when she sits down to knit.
Q2. Why
does she find it hard to pull the ivory needle?
Ans. She finds it hard
to pull the ivory needle more because of mental suppression
than because of physical weakness. Due to constant fear that she confronts,
has become a nervous wreck.
Q3. Explain:
‘massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band’.
Ans. The expression is
symbolic of male authority and power. Matrimony binds the woman physically
as well as mentally. Likewise Aunt Jennifer is trapped in gender oppression and
feels herself burdened by the authority of her husband.
Q4. How
is Aunt Jennifer affected by the ‘weight of matrimony’?
Ans. Aunt Jennifer
cannot do things freely. She tries to come up to the expectation of her husband.
She seems to have lost her identity. The freedom that she dreams of
through her art, is itself symbolic of her oppressed self.
3. Read
the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands
will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was
mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and
unafraid.”
Q1. What
is Aunt Jennifer’s death symbolic of?
Ans. Aunt Jennifer’s
death is symbolic of her complete submission to her suppression.
Q2. Explain:
“terrified hands”.
Ans. Aunt Jennifer is
terrified by her dominating husband and hence her hands are shivering.
Q3. What
does ‘ringed with ordeals’ imply?
Ans. Aunt Jennifer has
been so victimized in her life that even after death she remains trapped. We
find her a victim of gender injustice and oppression.
Short
Answer Type Questions
Q1. How
do the tigers made by Aunt Jennifer look like?
Ans. The tigers, made
by Aunt Jennifer on the screen, are jumping and playing about without any
fear of the men beneath the tree. They walk in elegance and style displaying
the spirit of courage, fearlessness, strength and confidence.
Q2. What
do the tigers made by the Aunt symbolize?
Ans. The tigers made
by Aunt Jennifer symbolize the spirit of courage, strength and fearlessness
Aunt Jennifer, a victim of male oppression, expresses her crushed
feelings in the form of art. So, the tigers are symbolic of the fear of
male domination with which Aunt Jennifer suffers.
Q3. Why
do you think Aunt Jennifer’s hands are fluttering through her wool? Why is
she finding the needle so hard to pull?
Ans. Aunt Jennifer is
victimized by the overbearing and dominant nature of her husband. Her life
has become a torture due to her suppression by her atrocious husband. The fear
of her authoritative husband has gone so deep into her being that she
seems to have lost
all strength and energy. Thus her hands shake
and flutter so much that she is not even able to pull the needle through
the tapestry.
Q4. What
do you understand by “massive weight of uncle’s wedding band”?
Ans. Generally
‘wedding band’ is a symbol of joy and happiness. But in case of Aunt
Jennifer, it has become a symbol of torture and oppression. Her
relationship with her authoritative husband has become a painful burden to
carry. Her ‘wedding band’ has brought her a world of pain, misery and
torture. She has lost her freedom and entered a world of humiliation and
oppression.
Q5. Explain
’her terrified hands will lie, still ringed with the ordeals she was mastered
by’.
Ans. These lines
convey Aunt’s complete submission to the oppressive authority of
her husband. The fear of her husband has gone so deep into her being that
even death cannot liberate her from the chains of her mental suppression.
Memories of her husband’s tortures and atrocities which bent her into a
humiliating slavery, will continue to haunt her even after her death.