Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

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). Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers is a fine example of feminist poetry, which holds a banner of protest against the patriarchal society. The poem portrays a central character, Aunt Jennifer, as a meek, passive woman, suffocated by her marriage and trapped within the cultural constraints and responsibilities of married life. Aunt Jennifer represented women all over the world, who were caught under the oppressive hand of a patriarchal society.

In the first stanza, we are introduced to the protagonist of the poem, Aunt Jennifer whose leisure pursuit is needlework. Instead of describing her, however, Rich chooses to establish Aunt Jennifer’s ownership of Tigers and continues to describe them. But these tiger are not real. They are aunt Jennifer’s knitted tigers on her tapestry. The tapestry on which she has knitted tigers is very symbolic of what she wants to be in life – fearless, assertive, noble and powerful like the tiger. They “prance across a screen”. This implies that the tigers move in a lively fashion, perhaps arrogantly. The tigers are colorfully described as “bright” and seeming full of energy. “Bright” here signifies their powerful and radiant persona.  They are “topaz denizens of a world of green”. The ancient Greeks believed that topaz had the ability to increase the strength of those who wore it, and Egyptians thought that it could protect people from physical harm (“Topaz”). The speaker may be using the word topaz for its golden color, or topaz may be a representation of the strength and impenetrability of the tigers. Her tigers are assured and confident inhabitants, inhabitants of “a world of green”. The tigers certainly seem to be aware of their own power since they have no fear of “the men beneath the tree”. May be the tigers are aunt Jennifer herself and “the men beneath the tree is tree” is her husband and the whole first stanza is symbolizing that aunt Jennifer is not afraid of her husband.

But in the second stanza, the reality of Aunt Jennifer is revealed as she is feeble, weak and enslaved, very much the opposite of the tigers she was knitting. Aunt Jennifer and her tigers are in fact polar opposites, her tigers are everything that she isn’t and wishes to be. Her fingers are “fluttering through her wool” showing both physical and mental weakness. She finds “even the ivory needle hard to pull”. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. Though weeding band’s is not that heavy but “Uncle’s wedding band” is described to have “massive weight” 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. It “sits heavily upon her hand” because her marriage has taken a toll on her, and she can feel it heavily on her heart and soul. Her husband is strong and fearless, but he is not “chivalric” as her tigers. Chivalric men, unlike her husband, respect their women and act kindly to them.

The last stanza starts on a creepy note about Aunt Jennifer’s death. Aunt Jennifer’s oppression is so extreme that not even death will grant her freedom. When Aunt Jen dies, she will die as a lonely and depressed woman, and her hands are “terrified” because they never got to be free again. Even her death couldn’t free her from the “ordeals she was mastered by”. 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”. 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.

This short poem of three four-line stanzas through the world of Aunty Jennifer, tells us about her inner desire to free herself from the clutches of abusive marriage and patriarchal society. She creates an alternative world of free and fearless tigers to express her longing for freedom, a medium of escape from her grim marriage. (ending ta rhik korte partisi na… eta ektu complete kore diyo)