INDIAN SCHOOL AL SEEB

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH: 2023-2024

Resource Person: Ms. Shiney Roy Handout No. : 14
Ref. Book: bbc Literary Companion & CBSE Subject: English Literature
Notes Topic: Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers(Poem)
Month of Submission: August, 2023

Name of the Student: _________________________________ Roll No.: ______

Class & Section: XII _________ Date: __________

Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers – Adrienne Rich

Summary
The poet expresses the inner feelings of a woman - Aunt Jennifer. The aunt is embroidering a motif
comprising of energetic, fearless tigers moving freely around the bright greenery.
She is living a life of submissiveness to her husband’s command. Her acts are dominated by him
and she fears him constantly. This pattern of the free and fearless tigers reflects her inner desire to
live a free and fearless life. The tigers are graceful, elegant and bright.
Aunt Jennifer’s fingers tremble as she embroiders. She is old but still fears her husband. She does
not enjoy the freedom to do anything as per her wish. She is scared doing the embroidery too and
fears his wrath. Since the day she got married, she has been fulfilling the demands of her husband.
The wedding ring on her hand is a constant reminder that she belongs to her husband. The burden
of the demanding marriage has exhausted her. The torment will not end until her death.
Even after her death, the ring will remain on her hand and she will never be free. On the other hand,
the tigers that she is embroidering will continue to move around freely forever. Her desire of freedom
and fearlessness will live on through her tigers.
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
a) How are the tigers different from Aunt Jennifer?
The tigers are different from Aunt Jennifer as they are shown as symbols of strength, fearlessness
and confidence. Aunt Jennifer has been described as a timid female who is burdened with marital
responsibilities and she is lacking in confidence.
b) How do ‘denizens’ and ‘chivalric’ add to the understanding of the tiger’s attitude?
The yellowish brown tigers are supposed to be the king of the jungle. They are fearless and
ferocious and move elegantly unlike aunt Jennifer who is oppressed and is scared of her husband.
b) Why does she find it difficult to pull her ivory needle?
She finds it difficult to pull her ivory needle as she is terrorised and traumatised by the constraints of
her married life.
c) What does ‘wedding band’ stand for?
The wedding band stands for her martial responsibilities but she feels burdened by them as she is
not able to express herself.
d) Describe the irony in the third line.
The irony in the third line is that her marriage instead of proving blissful has overburdened her with
responsibilities and her wedding band symbolises her bondage to her husband and his
overpowering nature.
b) Why is she “ringed with ordeals”?
The ‘ring’ here refers to her wedding band or ring, which has brought with it a host of family

ISAS/XII/ENG/2023-24 /SR Page 1 / 4

responsibilities. She feels so surrounded (i.e., ringed) by her marital constraints that it seems like an
ordeal to her.
c) What is the difference between her and the tigers?
Aunt Jennifer is quiet weak and submissive, whereas the tigers are strong, bold and powerful. She is
bound by the constraints of her married life, while the tigers are free to move about in the green
woods.
d) Why has Aunt Jennifer created the tigers so different from her own character?
The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are an expression of her desire to free herself from the
constraints of her married life. She wants to be bold and fearless like her tigers.
Answer the following:
1. What picture of male chauvinism (tyranny) do we find in the poem ‘Aunt Jennifer’s
Tigers’?
In the poem, ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’, Aunt Jennifer was oppressed by her husband. She was
confined within the four walls of her husband’s house and was not free to do what she wished. She
was also overburdened by her marital responsibilities.
2. Aunt Jennifer’s efforts to get rid of her fear proved to be futile. Comment.
Although Aunt Jennifer tried her best to conquer her fear, she continued to be traumatised and
oppressed by her husband. Her act of embroidering fearless, prancing tigers could give her only a
temporary release to her pent up feelings of liberation.
3. What is suggested by the phrase, ‘massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band’?
The weight that lies heavily on Aunt Jennifer’s hand is the wedding band, which symbolises the
male dominance, harsh and difficult experiences , a women faces in matrimony at the hands of her
terrifying husband. The social customs and laws imposed imply an indirect slavery in matrimony.
Marriage is socially and legally a binding on women. So they allow themselves to be suppressed by
their husbands out of fear and social obligations.
4. Why does Aunt Jennifer create animals that are so different from her own character?
In creating animals that are different from her own character, Aunt Jennifer found a means of living
an alternate life that is denied to her, a life that is proud, free and fearless.
Through this difference, the poet suggests Aunt Jennifer’s suppressed desire to become bold and
fearless, and free from oppression.
5. What are the difficulties that Aunt Jennifer faced in her life?
Aunt Jennifer was probably a victim of oppression at the hands of the patriarchal society. She was
subjugated by her husband and was not free to do what she wished.
6. How are Aunt Jennifer’s tigers different from her?
Aunt Jennifer’s tigers present a sharp contrast to her. While the Aunt is weak, meek, submissive and
bound by restrictions, the tigers are strong, fearless, confident and free to move wherever they wish.
7. Why did Aunt Jennifer choose to embroider tigers on the panel?
Aunt Jennifer chose to embroider tigers on the panel because for her, the tigers were the symbols of
bravery, fearlessness and strength. Unlike her, they were not afraid of men around them.
8. What do the symbols , ‘tigers’, ‘fingers’ and ‘ring’ stand for in the poem, ‘Aunt
Jennifer’s Tigers’?
The ‘tigers’ are symbols of bravery and courage and also of Aunt Jennifer’s desire for freedom. The
‘fingers’ are symbol of fear experienced by Aunt Jennifer and ‘ring’ symbolises an oppressive and
binding marriage.
9. What ideology does the poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” propound?
The poem is clearly a feminist poem which is critical of the male world for terrifying and oppressing
the likes of Aunt Jennifer. Her isolation and her exploitation compel her to create an alternate world
of freedom in the world of her art.

ISAS/XII/ENG/2023-24 /SR Page 2 / 4

 10. What character traits of Aunt Jennifer come to light in the poem?
Aunt Jennifer is portrayed as a terrified person who is victimised by a domineering husband. She
remains tensed and nervous, may be as she is apprehensive of how her husband will treat her. She
is caged in the prison of her ego-psychology and the ideology of the family. The freedom of spirit,
which is symbolised by the tigers, is never achieved by her even in her art and even after her death.
11. Where does Aunt Jennifer seek refuge on being victimised by the male world? Does
she find her freedom?
Unable to liberate herself from the victimisation of the male world, Aunt Jennifer tries to find freedom
in her work of art. Though her art is presented as positive buoyant and triumphant, yet she fails to
escape from the terrifying power of her husband. The tigers go on prancing, proud and unafraid
even after her death.
12. Why do you think Aunt Jennifer’s fingers are fluttering through her wool?
Aunt Jennifer was victimized by the over bearing and dominant nature of her husband. Living for a
long time in that isolated world of her own, she produces the very image of her oppression. She has
lost her self-confidence and her independence to such an extent that even her art fails to provide her
an escape from the dominance of her husband. Her hands thus shake and flutter so much she is not
even able to pull the needle through the tapestry.
13. What is the theme of the poem ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’?
The poem is clearly a feminist poem and revolves around the theme of male chauvinism and gender
conflicts. The theme of the victimization of the women by their male counterparts has been starkly
brought out in the poem making it a forceful expression of the evils of the patriarchy. It causes the
woman to create an alternative world of embroidery where she escapes and dreams of freedom and
power. The three quatrains of the poem expose the desolating effect of male oppression and the
absent uncle is represented only by the wedding band.
14. Describe the appropriateness of the title ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’.
The title is appropriate as it refers to a tapestry Aunt Jennifer is embroidering. The cloth screen
contains some ferocious, proud and fearless tigers which are prancing boldly. The tigers are the
symbol of the rude and tyrant husband of Aunt Jennifer as she was in constant fear of him and felt
trapped and suffocated in her marital life. She felt as if her husband was a master and she was a
slave who must carry out his command. At another level, the powerful and fearless tigers symbolize
the Aunt’s inherent desire to escape from this world of fear and torture and be as free as the tigers
who move fearlessly in a gallant surety and are not scared of the males in the society.
Critical Analysis of Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers by Adrienne Rich
The first verse of the poem defines the fearless tigers Aunt Jennifer creates in
needlepoint. But their freedom and dignity is contrasted in the second verse to the restrictions
of marriage, symbolized by the wedding band that weighs down Aunt Jennifer’s fingers as
she sews. Another major criticism is that the themes are resolved in the final, third, verse:
Even death will not free Aunt Jennifer from her ordeals, but the tigers she has created will
continue to appear “proud and unafraid. “It has been detected that Uncle causes Aunt Jennifer
anxiety, and that he is dominating her through his mastery. Therefore, Uncle is unfair. Yet, Uncle is
identical with Aunt Jennifer’s
wedding ring. The poem has received wide critical appreciation. Adrienne Rich’s poem “Aunt
Jennifer’s Tigers” is a poem of struggle. The conflict is what takes place within Aunt Jennifer, the
craving to break away from the society in which she lives. The poem is convincing because
of the struggle between what Jennifer wishes her life to be and what it really is. The narrator
occupies the reader with the description: tigers prance across a screen, and sets this image in
contrast to the image of Aunt Jennifer’s fingers with the massive weight of Uncle’s wedding
band.
The poem concludes by saying that the poet’s artwork will live on after her as a reminder of
the dreams she never achieved. This poem of three four-line stanzas visualises a relative

ISAS/XII/ENG/2023-24 /SR Page 3 / 4

whose leisure pursuit is needlework. Aunt Jennifer reveals her dreams of a happier life in her
needlework.In the course of the poem, the relative, Aunt Jennifer, makes a panel with images of
tigers
marching proudly across it. The tigers are free, unlike their maker. Her sheet contains
animals that are happier and more self-assured than she is. There is a certainty about them
that their maker lacks in her. Aunt Jennifer paints confident, proud tigers. They are assured
and confident inhabitants, inhabitants of their green world. ‘Denizen’ suggests independent
citizen. It would seem that Jennifer is not an independent citizen of her own world. She is
instead a wife, weighed down by duties as we learn in the entire poem. Jennifer uses sharp
and contrasting colours, sharp yellow against a green background. Her tigers are as bright as
topaz, a yellow gem.
Her depiction contains an image of men under a tree, though the proud tigers show no fear of
the men. This is brought up to show that they differ from Jennifer, who lives in fear of her
husband to some extent. The tigers remind the poet of knights, full of courteousness and
style. Chivalric men respected their women and acted kindly to them. Again, this seems to
contrast with how Uncle behaved towards Aunt Jennifer according to what is mentioned in
the poem.
In the poem, the poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s anxious hands struggling to pull the wool
with her ivory needle. The word fluttering is suggestive of trembling. We get the impression
of a fragile woman who finds it hard to pull the needle. It is exciting that if her needle is
made of ivory, it may have come from an elephant’s tusk. Ivory is a bit like topaz, a precious
material. As ivory involves the killing of elephants for their valuable tusks, it would seem
that Jennifer may not care much for tigers in the wild or know much about their reality.
Thus, her artwork is unrealistic. Perhaps the poet feels it is a pointless and empty type of art.
The poet humorously suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s fingers find it hard to hold the weight of
her wedding ring and then pull the needle at the same time.
The wedding band is another mention to a precious substance, probably gold. By mentioning
that it is Uncle’s wedding band, the poet suggests that Uncle owns Jennifer too and that as a
female she is the property of her husband. The words massive and heavily put forward that
Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which she has to attend to her husband’s needs
and bear out his instructions. As a result, she is somewhat wiped out in her old age.
In the poem, the poet concludes by predicting that, when Aunt Jennifer dies, her hands will
look worn from all her needlework as well as the hard time she has trying to make her
husband happy. Aunt Jennifer is ringed, trapped in her marriage and controlled like an
animal. Her husband is her master.
'Aunt Jennifer's Tigers' is a poem which concerns the loss of a woman's independence and
identity due to her marriage and the role that she must constantly play as a wife which stifles
her mental freedom. It deals with a woman who is trapped in an oppressive marriage, her
situation seems inescapable such that she takes to creating the tigers in the poem which are
symbolic of her wish for a free rein to her womanhood, independent of her role as her
husband's wife. The bold images of the tigers are contrasted with the timidity of the woman,
they are fearless and assertive, unlike their creator who leads an ordered and conventional life
under the shadow of her husband

ISAS/XII/ENG/2023-24 /SR Page 4 / 4

ISAS/XII/ENG/2023-24 /SR Page 5 / 4