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Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

-- Adrienne Rich

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 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.

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.

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It's an expression to project the way women are suppressed in our so called male dominated society. many a times the aspirations and talents lie latent , aunt jenny moves ahead give a silent but bold reply to the dominance silently and aptly. Weaves her dream on the panel and quietly give vent to her needs ,though none have understood yet she has kept her hope and desire alive.

………………………………aunt jenny has been subjected to exploitation by her husband representing patriarchal society.she is docile and has endured this pain without a word of protest .she did not open her feelings to any one .her emotions ,her feelings her frustration find expression in the form of tiger she has created .these tigers represent her mute reply to her husband and the society she lives in . she understands that she should have been free should have faced her husband boldly but only god knows why she preferred to tolerate the attrocities silently …………………………………..

An Analysis of "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"

It is difficult to depict a primary poetic technique within this poem. The reason being that, many devices are used to bring forth the message that Rich has embedded within it. However, symbolism is the most prominent. The poem is set in a traditional format, using simple rhyme and meter to give the reader a sense of formality. Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers", depicts an audacious woman trapped within a timid and suppressed life. Marriage and the culture that supports it have effected the character in this poem greatly. Reality seems inescapable because of the ring that "sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand". The tapestry that Aunt Jennifer is creating in the poem, is very symbolic of her potential. When you picture a tiger, the words power, fluidity, nobility, and strength may accompany that image. Those same words accompany the hidden life of Aunt Jennifer.

The first stanza opens the poem with a truly bold image of tigers as "They pace in sleek chivalric certainty". The tigers obviously have a very significant symbolic purpose in this poem. They portray the fearlessness, assertion and power, that Aunt Jennifer displaces in order to lead her conventional life.

Adrienne Rich expresses some feminist concern in this poem. The poem was written in the 1950's, and in this era, the expectations and gender roles were much different than in the present. Aunt Jennifer is suppressed by the life she leads and more so by the conventional marriage she is trapped in. She is pinned down by the "massive weight of Uncle's wedding band". The feminist concern in this piece is symbolized in a number of ways. The oppressing gender expectations in the 50's have a connection with the domineering actions of men in this time. The reference to animals being hunted and driven up trees ties into this as well. The tigers themselves are even masculine figures, with their "chivalric certainty". The "ivory needle" is characteristic of the hunting of

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elephants for their tusks. This is all symbolic of the male dominance that has such a deep impact within the meaning of this poem. Just as the tigers are a projection of Aunt Jennifer, it seems the men beneath the tree are a projection of Uncle. As long as power can be envisioned only in terms that are culturally depicted as masculine, the revolutionary vision of Aunt Jennifer, which is all confined to a highly mediated and symbolic plane, will remain insufficient.

Adrienne Rich's Poem on the Oppressive Nature of the Patriarchy

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" shows that oppression need not be outwardly cruel, but that forcing a role on someone, no matter how comfortable it is, still keeps them down.

Aunt Jennifer is a woman of creative fire and passion, but she has been defined by the rules of others for so long that she is unable to express herself outside of them. The weight of her role in life, as decided by the patriarchy, while not overtly oppressive, is a weight that holds her down until she feels unable to rise.

Ultimately, the poem is a tale of hopelessness, of a caged bird’s inability to sing of freedom because she doesn’t know what it is.

The Tigers and Freedom

The piece begins with Aunt Jennifer’s tigers cavorting bravely through a world of which they are masters. The phrasing of the poem shows the reader the carefree and powerful nature of the beasts, giving it an initial air of freedom and beauty.

The tigers don’t merely tread through the jungle; they literally “prance,” carelessly dancing through their “world of green”. Rich goes on to point out the lack of fear the tigers feel at the presence of man, adding once again to the notion of their natural supremacy. Indeed, in the tigers’ minds there is no doubt of their place or position, as Rich puts it they possess a “chivalric certainty” as they tread through the world.

Benevolent Oppression

In contrast, the second stanza of “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is a tale of bleak and weighty life. The reader is shown how Aunt Jennifer, encumbered by the burden of her subjugated role, finds life a weary struggle. Yet Rich has chosen not to show Aunt Jennifer’s oppression in the traditional imagery, she’s not shown cleaning or cooking, or doing any work at all, rather, she is shown at leisure, sewing a screen.

Yet that act of creation sits heavily upon her, for “even the ivory needle [is] hard to pull” with “the massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band” upon her. By casting the language of Aunt Jennifer’s subjugation in this manner, Rich makes it more horrible than anything overt or sinister could have done. It is not Aunt Jennifer’s body that suffers the weight of the man’s world, it is her spirit.

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In the third stanza, Rich pushes the image farther. Aunt Jennifer’s death is prophesied to have no more hope in it than her life. Just as she was ruled over by man in life, so too will she be “mastered” in death—taking to the grave the oppression that defined her existence.The finality of it, that Rich has chosen to show the reader that she has no hope, is the ultimate stroke in defining a woman completely beaten down by the role society has forced upon her, and it sets up beautifully the contrast of the last two lines.

The Enduring Nature of PatriarchyIn the final couplet, Rich returns to the tigers, ripping the reader from the bleak grey world Aunt Jennifer inhabits, and depositing them back into the green and topaz scenery she’s created. It seems the reader is shown hope, for the tigers are not dead; they are not caged or conquered.

The reader is told that forever, those sleek beasts Aunt Jennifer has created will go on prancing and proud. But then the meaning of Rich’s poem comes crashing home, shattering the last vestiges of hope that one could find in the tigers, for they are precisely that, tigers, male and strong.

Rich has carefully defined the tigers not simply as male, but as chivalric, members of that same kindly oppressive faction that Aunt Jennifer has born the burden of her entire life. The reader is shown that even in art Aunt Jennifer is not free to define herself.She has not crafted a scene of free and strong tigresses. She has not breathed the silent prayer of her soul into an immortal screen; she has simply sublimated her self, once again, to the will of the patriarchy, shoring up its position with her art. Rich leaves the reader here with one final terrible prognostication, as she tells that the tigers, indeed the patriarchal oppression of Aunt Jennifer will go on, “prancing, proud, and unafraid”.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Q: “AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS” IS REPRESENTATIVE POEM OF RICH'S FEMINISM, ELABORATE? Ans: The fearful, gloomy woman waiting inside her darkening room for the emotional and meteorological devastation to hit. could be Aunt Jennifer. who is similarly passive and terrified, overwhelmed by events that eclipsed her small strength. “Aunt Jennifer's Tigers” is. however. an even clearer statement ol conflict in women, specifically between the impulse to freedom and imagination (her tapestry of prancing tigers) and the “massive weight” of gender roles and expectations. signified by .Uncle’s wedding band.” Although separated through the use of the third person and a different generation. neither Aunt Jennifer in her ignorance nor Rich as a poet recognizes the fundamental implications of the division between imagination and duty. power amid passivity.