Aunt Jennifer's Tigers: An Analysis of Adrienne Rich's Poem

Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer Tigers" is a poem that concerns itself mainly with a woman struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life while being insatiably focused on attaining some sense of immortality once that life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive station in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she's escaping to a jungle where wild animals rule the land and never show fear. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect from even their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. In the meantime, she will deal with her problems by escaping from them.

This escape into her art is shown vividly in the opening stanza of the poem where the imagery is vibrant and alive and shows what Aunt Jennifer is capable of doing; it also provides a glimpse into Aunt Jennifer's subconscious in its portrayal of animals who don't allow themselves to be victimized by anyone. The tigers are literally prancing across the screen. The image of something prancing immediately brings to mind a being that is confident and self-assured and happy; all things that Aunt Jennifer is not. The tigers are not just simply tigers, of course. They are "Bright topaz denizens of a world of green" (2). The use of colors implies that Aunt Jennifer's tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than she. Yellow connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is longing for both energy and rebirth. She cannot find it at home so she goes on journeys into her sewing. The tigers are foreign and that also brings speculation that Aunt Jennifer would like to travel, which is just another form escape. That the tigers sense no fear of the predatory hunters is key. The assumption here is that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of her own predator: her husband. He has hunted her and captured her and keeps her in a cage from which her only escape is her sewing. The tigers, on the other hand, do not live in fear. No, rather they pace about as if they were kings of their domain. They are certain of their place in the world and will allow no one or nothing to interfere. The tigers are to Aunt Jennifer the ultimate creatures of self-actualization. They are exactly what she wishes she could be herself. And in creating them so resplendently, they will live on long after their creator has passed on.

Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. Aunt Jennifer's fingers are "fluttering through her wool" (5) in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt Jennifer is trying to sew as fast as her fingers will allow. Complex questions arise from this simple description of Aunt Jennifer sewing. Why does she need to create something so fast? Exactly what is she afraid of that would spur her on so? Perhaps her fear is that she will not live long enough to finish the creation. Perhaps she fears she will be interrupted in the middle of her work. She is trying to do it as fast as she can, but then begin the images of weight, of carrying a burden. The fact that the "ivory needle is hard to pull" (6) insinuates that she's been sewing for a long time. In fact, sewing is probably what she does most of the day when she's not caring for her husband. The marriage to the speaker's Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer's greatest weight. After all, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand" (7-8). This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer's wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can't sew as fast as she'd like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn't turn out as she planned. Perhaps she wanted children and never had any. Certainly no mention is made in the poem of the speaker having cousins. Aunt Jennifer's marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.

The final stanza argues for the successful grasping of a sense of immortality so eagerly sought by Aunt Jennifer. This final portion of the poem contains imagery that reflects back on the first two stanzas and completes the three-tiered approach to the poem as a consideration of the life-spirit of someone who has not led the life they wanted contrasted with the bid for a satisfactory afterlife. The stanza begins with a look forward to when Aunt Jennifer will no longer be alive and creating her artistic sewing pieces. The first line pointedly shows that Aunt Jennifer had terrified hands which "will lie / Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by" (9-10). The line clearly harkens back to the second stanza and its dealings with the burdens Aunt Jennifer lives under. What could possibly have terrified her hands? And what ordeals was she mastered by? The most obvious answer is made by connecting the ordeals back with the heavy weight of her wedding band spoken of in the second stanza. Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband. She is quite literally mastered by her husband. Such is the need for escape into her art. 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 (12). 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.

The structure of the play "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is built upon the give and take of showing a woman's ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the abject humiliation of a living a life that is built on worries and woe. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. If a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he have created it. Aunt Jennifer successfully beat back the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself.