CBSE Class 12 Board Examination

Chapter 6: Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

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Summary

Written by Adrienne Rich, this poem explores the constraints and oppression experienced by women in a male-dominated, patriarchal society. Aunt Jennifer is embroidering a panel of bright, fearless tigers who prance across a green screen — proud, sleek, vivid creatures that do not fear the men beneath the tree. These tigers symbolise the freedom, strength and confidence that Aunt Jennifer herself lacks in her own life. In contrast, her own hands are shown fluttering nervously through the wool, finding even the ivory embroidery needle hard to pull, weighed down by the massive weight of her wedding band — a clear symbol of the heavy burden of her marriage and the oppression she endures. The poet states that the ordeals of married life have so dominated and weakened her that even when she is dead, her terrified hands will still be ringed with the ordeals she was mastered by. Yet the tigers she has created will go on prancing, proud and unafraid, long after she is gone. Through the lasting freedom of her art, Aunt Jennifer expresses the liberation she could never achieve in life. The poem is a poignant comment on the suffering of women trapped in oppressive marriages and on art as a means of expressing the freedom denied in reality.

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