Aunt Jennifers Tigers

Adrienne Rich [1929]

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 fathers strong personality while growing up. It was he who most
guided her as a young poet. This wasnt 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 Jennifers Tigers Rich is mocking the weakness of Aunt Jennifer and the clout and
authority of Jennifers 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 Americas 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 by
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 Jennifers 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 elephants 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 Jennfers 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 Uncles wedding band, the poet suggests that Uncle owns Jennifer too
and that as a female she is the property of her husband.

Courtesy of: Prof. Ali Raza Fahad Dept. of English Govt Postgraduate College, Gojra

The words massive and heavily suggest Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which
she has to attend to her husbands 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 husbands property: Uncles 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 Jennifers 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 Jennifers 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.
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 Jennifers 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 Jennifers
corpse from the future is a bit eerie or creepy.
Hyperbole [Exaggeration] The poet exaggerates the weight of her husbands wedding ring to make a
point about how dominating he is.

Courtesy of: Prof. Ali Raza Fahad Dept. of English Govt Postgraduate College, Gojra

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.
Rhyme Every pair of lines rhyme, like the een sound in screen and green at the end of the first two
lines. The rhyme pattern for the poem is: aabb ccdd eeff. This rigid pattern mirrors the rigid life of Aunt
Jennifer.
Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note the long i sound in find the ivory. This creates a sad or
mournful effect.
Consonance [similar consonant sound repetition] Note the repeated n sound in the first line and the f
sound in the first line of the second stanza.
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.
Sibilance [repetition of s sound] Note how the five s sounds in the first line create a smooth opening,
suggesting an air of confidence within the artificial world of the panel.

Courtesy of: Prof. Ali Raza Fahad Dept. of English Govt Postgraduate College, Gojra