Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers Adrienne Rich

Twentieth century poet, critic, scholar and feminist, Adrienne Rich wrote ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ as a part of her first book of poetry ‘A Change of World’ (1951).

Feminism was making its presence felt in the 1950s fighting for equal voting, legal and social rights for women. This poem is Adrienne’s voice against the emotional and physical brutalities women face as part of their marriages especially, in a patriarchal society.

On the surface, this is a simple poem with an uncomplicated rhyme scheme about a woman busy with needlepoint. However, the true meaning emerges when the layers are peeled.

Relevant Background

• Adrienne Rich is an American poet who was born in 1929.
• She was brought up in a well-off family.
• Adrienne was the elder of two daughters.
• Her father was a doctor and her mother was a music composer.
• She grew up in with a Jewish father and a Protestant mother. As a result of this mixed marriage she was used to tensions between her parents. While Rich was growing up, she had to put up with moments of tense silence in her household.
• 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.
• Rich was also fascinated by how people could use a hobby like artwork to create a happier and prettier world than their daily life.
• Rich has been one of America’s most important female poets for the past fifty years.

Summary

• This poem of three four-line stanzas imagines a relative whose hobby is needlework.
• Aunt Jennifer reveals her dreams of a happier life in her needlework.
• From the titles given to the adults, it seems as if the speaker is a child.
• In the first stanza the relative, Aunt Jennifer, makes a panel with images of tigers parading proudly across it.  The tigers are free, unlike their maker.
• Her panel contains animals that are happier and more confident than she is. There is a ‘certainty’ about them that their maker lacks in herself.
• Aunt Jennifer paints confident, proud tigers. They are assured and confident dwelllers, ‘denizens’, 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 second stanza.
• Jennifer uses sharp and contrasting colours, sharp yellow against a green background.
• Her tigers are as bright as topaz, a yellow gem.
• Her picture contains an image of men under a tree, though the proud tigers show no fear of the men. This is mentioned 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 courtesty and style. Chivalric men respected their women and acted kindly towards them. Again, this seems to contrast with how ‘Uncle’ behaved towards Aunt Jennifer according to the second stanza.
• In the second stanza, the poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s nervous hands struggling to pull the wool with her ivory needle. The word ‘fluttering’ suggests trembling.
• We get the impression of a frail woman who finds it hard to pull the needle.
• It is interesting 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 Jennfer’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 reference 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’ suggest Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which she has to attend to her husband’s needs and fulfil his commands. As a result she is somewhat worn out in her old age.
• In the third stanza, the poet predicts that, when Aunt Jennifer dies, her hands will look worn from all her needlework as well as the hard time she has trying to please her husband.
• Aunt Jennifer is ‘ringed’, trapped in her marriage and controlled like an animal. Her husband is her master.
• Her artwork will live on after her as a reminder of the dreams she never fulfilled.

Themes

1.  Marriage is unequal due to male domination/Inequality

The woman at the centre of the poem, Aunt Jennifer, is a nervous and fearful wife. She lacks inner conviction or ‘certainty’, unlike the tigers she portrays. Aunt Jennifer is ‘mastered’ in her life. She lives a life of inequality. She is so nervous that her fingers ‘flutter’ through the wool she is using in her tapestry or panel. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. This is shown by the symbol of the wedding ring that she wears. It is described as her husband’s property: ‘Uncle’s wedding band’. It ‘sits heavily’ on her hand because he dominates her life. Her life with her husband is desctibed as a life of ‘ordeals’.  It is shown that Jennifer is terrified in her marriage. Her husband may be fiercer to her than the tigers she produces in her artwork.  The poem therefore provides a negative picture of marriage. The poem is probably saying that the ‘Uncle’ or husband is behaving like a tiger, and the tigers are ‘chivalric’ like the husband should be. Each world is the reverse of what it should be.

2. The world of art is happier than the real world/Dream versus Reality

Aunt Jennifer’s hobby is making designs and pictures from wool. Jennifer produces wool tapestries that she places on panels. The creatures she places there are free and proud, the opposite to herself. She is ‘ringed’ or mastered in marriage and therefore she is not free, but controlled.  It seems that she creates a happier looking world than the one she lives in. She makes precise and brightly coloured pictures like the sharp yellow tigers of the poem, pictured against a green background. These bright contrasting colours are probably much more vivid than Jennifer’s everyday world. Her artistic work will live on after she dies, as, according to the poet, her tigers will ‘go on prancing’. The figures she creates are stronger and happier than she is. They are proud and ‘prance’ about, unlike their creator, who is nervous and fears her husband. The word ‘prance’ or parade contrasts sharply with ‘fluttering’, meaning trembling. The tigers do not fear the men the aunt places under some trees in her tapestry. Therefore, the imaginary tigers produced by Aunt Jennifer live a type of proud and free life that she can only dream about. It is a ‘chivalric’ world, one where gentlemen treat women with great respect. Yet this is also a false world, as real tigers live out a battle for survival of the fittest, where the strongest dominate. Perhaps Aunt Jennifer uses art as an escape from her troubles. In her artwork Jenniger imagines the kind of life she would have liked.

Values raised in the poem: Respect for women, equality, equity, gender sensitivity, empathy, feminism, value for art

Style

• Form  This poem is a formal, structured lyric.
• Structure  It contains three stanzas of four lines each
• Language Most of the words are short and simple everyday words. The sentences are simple in structure and all take two lines.
• Diction The unusual word ‘denizens’ stands out and it shows how special the tigers are, unlike how Aunt Jennifer feels about herself. The word ‘chivalric’ shows that the tigers are proud and charming. It means they treat women with respect. The repetition of ‘prance’ [parade] is interesting and emphasises the happy, confident life of the tigers.
• Full Stops and Commas Full stops are placed regularly at the end of every second line. The poem is controlled, just like its subject, Aunt Jennifer.
• Comparison The tigers are compared to knights from the time of chivalry in the middle ages.
• Imagery The main images are of Aunt Jennifer as a fearful wife and, secondly, the magnificent tigers she creates in her panel. Images of precious substances run through the poem: ‘topaz’, ‘ivory’ and the gold of ‘wedding band’.
• Metaphor The poet compares the yellow stripes of the tigers to a precious stone, topaz.
• Contrast [difference] The main contrasts are between nervous Aunt Jennifer and her confident tigers. Another contrast is between the strong yellow and green colours. The words ‘prancing’ and ‘fluttering’ contrast as well.
• Mood/Atmosphere Fear is the main atmosphere in Aunt Jennifer’s life of ‘ordeals’ where her fingers tremble and show terror.  An air of freedom and confidence dominates the atmosphere in her artistic creations. The men beneath the tree create an atmosphere of mystery.  The image of Aunt Jennifer’s corpse from the future is a bit eerie or creepy.
• Hyperbole [Exaggeration]  The poet exaggerates the weight of her husband’s wedding ring to make a point about how dominating he is.
• Paradox [apparent contradiction]   Here a trembling and ‘mastered’ woman creates free and confident creatures in her artistic endeavours. ‘Fluttering’ fingers produce something that has ‘certainty’.
• Tone The tone appears to be positive and cheerful when the poet describes the tigers. See the comment on sibilance below. The tone becomes sad and even creepy at times in describing the life of Aunt Jennifer.
• Repetition The word ‘prance’ is repeated to emphasise the pride and freedom of the tigers. ‘Ringed’ echoes ‘wedding band’. There is repetition of various sounds as indicated in the next few bullet points. .
• Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] e.g ‘p’ in ‘prancing proud’ emphasises the feeling of confidence expressed in the tigers’ movements.
• Things to note1) Depiction of a woman trapped in the cultural constraints and responsibilities of marital life and oppressive male dominance in a patriarchal society
  2) Animal symbolism – the animals she sews represent Aunt Jennifer’s innermost desires to be free, fearless, joyful, graceful, elegant, noble, powerful, assertive and confident.
  3) Other symbols – Aunt (represents all women caught in poor marriages), wedding band (an instrument symbolising constraints and ordeals of a bad marriage), men beneath the tree (predators, the uncle who has mastered aunt Jennifer’s spirit), tigers (innermost desires of Aunt Jennifer)
  4) Poetic devices – Alliteration (fingers flutter), hyperbole (massive weight), personification (ring sits heavily upon aunt’s hand, tigers – chivalric, denizens), visual imagery (bright topaz, world of green, ivory needle, fluttering fingers, prance, pace, wedding band sits heavily), synecdoche (terrified hands), pun (ringed)
  5) Themes – ordeals of marriage in a patriarchal society, art as a means of expression and escape

• Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers: An Analysis of Adrienne Rich’s Poem
• Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer Tigers” is a poem that concerns itself mainly with a woman struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life while being insatiably focused on attaining some sense of immortality once that life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive station in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she’s escaping to a jungle where wild animals rule the land and never show fear. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect from even their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. In the meantime, she will deal with her problems by escaping from them.This escape into her art is shown vividly in the opening stanza of the poem where the imagery is vibrant and alive and shows what Aunt Jennifer is capable of doing; it also provides a glimpse into Aunt Jennifer’s subconscious in its portrayal of animals who don’t allow themselves to be victimized by anyone. The tigers are literally prancing across the screen. The image of something prancing immediately brings to mind a being that is confident and self-assured and happy; all things that Aunt Jennifer is not. The tigers are not just simply tigers, of course. They are “Bright topaz denizens of a world of green” (2). The use of colors implies that Aunt Jennifer’s tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than she. Yellow connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is longing for both energy and rebirth. She cannot find it at home so she goes on journeys into her sewing. The tigers are foreign and that also brings speculation that Aunt Jennifer would like to travel, which is just another form escape. That the tigers sense no fear of the predatory hunters is key. The assumption here is that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of her own predator: her husband. He has hunted her and captured her and keeps her in a cage from which her only escape is her sewing. The tigers, on the other hand, do not live in fear. No, rather they pace about as if they were kings of their domain. They are certain of their place in the world and will allow no one or nothing to interfere. The tigers are to Aunt Jennifer the ultimate creatures of self-actualization. They are exactly what she wishes she could be herself. And in creating them so resplendently, they will live on long after their creator has passed on.
  Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. Aunt Jennifer’s fingers are “fluttering through her wool” (5) in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt Jennifer is trying to sew as fast as her fingers will allow. Complex questions arise from this simple description of Aunt Jennifer sewing. Why does she need to create something so fast? Exactly what is she afraid of that would spur her on so? Perhaps her fear is that she will not live long enough to finish the creation. Perhaps she fears she will be interrupted in the middle of her work. She is trying to do it as fast as she can, but then begin the images of weight, of carrying a burden. The fact that the “ivory needle is hard to pull” (6) insinuates that she’s been sewing for a long time. In fact, sewing is probably what she does most of the day when she’s not caring for her husband. The marriage to the speaker’s Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer’s greatest weight. After all, “The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand” (7-8). This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer’s wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can’t sew as fast as she’d like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn’t turn out as she planned. Perhaps she wanted children and never had any. Certainly no mention is made in the poem of the speaker having cousins. Aunt Jennifer’s marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.
  The final stanza argues for the successful grasping of a sense of immortality so eagerly sought by Aunt Jennifer. This final portion of the poem contains imagery that reflects back on the first two stanzas and completes the three-tiered approach to the poem as a consideration of the life-spirit of someone who has not led the life they wanted contrasted with the bid for a satisfactory afterlife. The stanza begins with a look forward to when Aunt Jennifer will no longer be alive and creating her artistic sewing pieces. The first line pointedly shows that Aunt Jennifer had terrified hands which “will lie / Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by” (9-10). The line clearly harkens back to the second stanza and its dealings with the burdens Aunt Jennifer lives under. What could possibly have terrified her hands? And what ordeals was she mastered by? The most obvious answer is made by connecting the ordeals back with the heavy weight of her wedding band spoken of in the second stanza. Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband. She is quite literally mastered by her husband. Such is the need for escape into her art. The final two lines of the stanza-and the poem-reflect back on the very opening line. The tigers are still in the panel that she made and they continue to prance, “proud and unafraid (12). The tigers that she fought so hard to create despite the overwhelming burden of her life will, indeed, continue to prance forever. By the end of the poem, Aunt Jennifer has fulfilled her need and achieved her own little sense of immortality. Her life was not in vain, she created something out of nothing, something that will live on well after she is dead and buried.
  The structure of the play “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is built upon the give and take of showing a woman’s ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the abject humiliation of a living a life that is built on worries and woe. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. If a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he have created it. Aunt Jennifer successfully beat back the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself.

1. How do ‘denizens’ and ‘chivalric’ add to our understanding the tiger’s attitude?

The tigers embroidered by Aunt Jennifer are free inhabitants of the vibrant green forests, masters of their domain and movements. They are ‘chivalric’- i.e. noble and majestic, pacing powerfully and confidently, fearless of the hunters . They stand in stark contrast to their frail creator who is timid, fearful of her husband, confined and crushed in an oppressive marriage.

2.  Why do you think Aunt Jennifer’s hands are ‘fluttering through her wool’ in the second stanza? Why is she finding the needle so hard to pull?

Aunt Jennifer struggles to express her dreams through needlework, but her fingers tremble nervously as she tries to pull the light ivory needle because she fears her domineering husband, which has made her physically and emotionally frail. She is weighed down by uncle’s wedding band-a symbol of her suffocating marriage and the compulsions therein, in a patriarchal society.

3.  What is suggested by the image ‘massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band’?  

Uncle’s wedding band is heavy as it is a symbol of bondage, of being crushed in an unhappy marriage. It has kept her encircled and trapped in a burdensome marriage in a patriarchal society- a relationship of subjugation and domination. It has restricted her freedom and eroded her individuality.

4. Of what or whom is Aunt Jennifer terrified in the third stanza?

Even after death, Aunt would carry her fear of her domineering husband as she would yet bear the burden of the wedding band on her finger. The ordeals faced by her in an oppressive marriage would continue to terrify her.

5.  What are the ordeals Aunt Jennifer is surrounded by, why is it significant that the poet uses the word ringed? What are the meanings of the word ringed in the poem?

Aunt Jennifer’s ordeals are those suffered by all women who face physical, mental or emotional trauma at the hands of insensitive husbands in a patriarchal society, restricting awoman’s personal liberty and dignity. The wedding ring has kept her ringed in i.e. trapped in a gender role – a victim of male domination.

6.  Why do you think Aunt Jennifer created animals that are so different from her own character? What might the poet be suggesting through this difference?

The timid and fearful Aunt Jennifer creates an alternative world of free and fearless tigers to express her longing for freedom, a medium of escape from her grim marriage. The ironical contrast underscores a warning by the poet against acceptance of subjugation by women as it crushes their dreams, individuality and a full life.

Irony: It is ironical that Aunt Jennifer’s creations- the tigers will continue to pace and prance freely, while Aunt herself will remain terrified even after death, ringed by the ordeals she was controlled by in her married life.

7.  Interpret the symbols in the poem

Wedding band– symbol of oppression in an unhappy marriage. Marriage is socially and legally binding, making women silently accept their subjugation and male domination, especially in a patriarchal society. Its weight refers to the burden of gender expectations. Ringed means encircled or trapped, losing individuality and freedom.

 a typical victim of male oppression in an unhappy marriage, who suffers loss of individuality, dignity and personal freedom silently. She becomes dependent, fearful and frail.

Tigers– symbolize untamed free spirit. Here they are antithesis of their creator’s personality. The use of colours implies that Aunt Jennifer’s tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than her. Yellow (bright topaz) connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and vitality.
They pace and prance freely, proudly, fearless, confident and majestic in their bearing.

 creative expression. The artwork expresses the Aunt’s suppressed desires and becomes her escape from the oppressive reality of her life.(last stanza) – as opposed to Aunt Jennifer. It shows that she has lost her identity completely, thus lost even her name.

‘Pace’ and ‘prance’ are action words. The rhyme mimics the movement of the tigers.

Do you sympathize with Aunt Jennifer? What is the attitude of the speaker towards her?

Aunt Jennifer’s plight as a victim of gender oppression in an unhappy marriage draws our sympathy. However, the poet underscores that Aunt by accepting her suffering silently let her life be completely mastered over by her husband and lost her personal freedom and individuality. Her desires expressed in her art work will remain only a dream unless women like her assert their equal status.