'Aunt Jennifer's Tigers' - Summary

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       Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

                               - Adrienne Rich 


 
       

About the author: 

  
    * Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929-2012).
    * An American poetess, essayist and feminist.
    * One of the most widely read and influenced poets of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
    * She talks about a woman's experiences in her marital life.
    * She tried to explore the inner feelings of women who is living under the dominance of men.

Stanza wise summary:


  STANZA 1 :

  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.

Meaning:

     Here, the poetess begins by talking about a lady who is busy with knitting embroidery in a piece of cloth. The purpose of the cloth could be a table cloth or for other sort of purpose.

     Particularly by the pattern that is embroidering by the Aunt is more important to analyse. The pattern shows tigers who are moving and jumping all around the fabric. Tigers are in the colour of the topaz stones (One of the brightest stones) which is bright yellow in color and look awesome. The entire background color seems the picture of the dense forest where these bright yellow colour tigers roaming with pride and without fear for the fellow citizens of the forest. Utimately, the tiger looks like a solider with sheer guts.
     

 STANZA 2: 
  
  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.

Meaning:

      This stanza elaborates the condition of Aunt Jennifer. All her present mood swings and mental agony are released from her actions. It starts with her engagement of time with her embroidering.  

      Rich pictures that Aunt Jennifer engaging in knitting embroidery patterns by often shifting needle upside down and vice versa. By this time her fingers with needle is quiet shivering. It seems she is afraid of something. It is her ivory needle, though it is little by size but because of her anxiety and agony, it appeals to her as heavy object. It makes her hard to pull the needle out from the fabric.

     Her inner turmoils on her marital life is reflected in her thoughts. She thinks her wedding ring bought from her husband on their wedding day seems heavy and unbearable because of her unhappiness and mere tastelessness of her marital life with her husband. She could not being bear the present life with her husband. She is packed with sadness that weighs her upon.

  STANZA 3:
 
  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.

Meaning:

   At last Rich explains, if the condition of what Aunt is still pursuing in her marital continues she would be dead at last. If she is dead, the very exact moment when her talented hands will leave her alone and put full stop to her talents.

   She is living the life with full of agony and sorrows. Probably, if she is dead her troubles will end upon by her demise. Her fearful and shivering fingers will put her to rest. Even if she dead, her marriage ring shall remain on her finger, which symbolises her husband's dominance always rule over after her death as well. In her life time, she wishes to be free and fearless but if she is accounted to death all her deep desires of freedom will alive only in the form of her art by which she Knot all her wishes in the form of fearless tigers. 

Literary and Figurative elements in the poem:


Stanza one: 

  Visual Imagery: 

- Bright topaz denizens 
- World of green 

  Alliteration:

- Chivalric certainty

  Metaphor:

- 'Bright topaz' - bright yellow color of tigers is metaphorically compared with the topaz stone.

Stanza two:

   Alliteration:

     - Fingers fluttering
     - weight of wedding band

Stanza three:

   Alliteration:

      - Prancing proud

   Irony:

      - 'Prancing proud' - tigers embroidered by still free and fearless but the artist Aunt Jennifer fearful and afraid even after her demise.

   Metaphor:

      - 'Ringed with ordeals' - which means she is ringed with problems and troubles by the wedding ring from her wedding day.

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