Aunt Jennifer's Tigers Essay Questions

Does Aunt Jennifer get to be an “artist”? Why or why not? Use examples from the poem.

Aunt Jennifer’s status as a creator is central to the poem. She is able to use her skills in embroidery to create an entire “green world” within the frame of her hoop. However, she is not necessarily an “artist” in the traditional sense. In her own writing, Adrienne Rich emphasized that it is difficult to be a female artist, because artistic creativity requires total freedom. Aunt Jennifer, in contrast, is confined by her marriage, even in her role as a creator: she struggles to even draw the needle through the fabric (6). Oftentimes, artistic creation is cast as a way to achieve a kind of immortality, because the artist’s reputation lives on through their work. Rich seems to allude to this dynamic in the third stanza, in which Aunt Jennifer’s tigers live on while she herself dies. Rather than living on through her art, Jennifer’s tigers live on in spite of her. Her own lack of freedom, therefore, prevents Jennifer from reaping the benefits of being an artist, even though she has an artist’s creative ability.

Discuss the symbol of the wedding ring. How does Rich use this object to speak about marriage?

Jennifer’s wedding ring is one of the most important objects in the poem. Rich takes advantage of its physical characteristics to make several figurative points. For example, she uses its weight, as a small metal object, to speak to the figurative weight of marriage on Jennifer’s life. Similarly, The ring's shape alludes to the way in which Jennifer is “ringed” by her marriage; encompassed by ordeals just as the ring encompasses her finger. The ring’s position on Jennifer’s hand is also important. The ring is a kind of “ground zero” for Jennifer’s lack of freedom. By positioning it on her hand, Rich suggests that the inability to use the hands freely—to make things and act upon the world—is marriage’s most significant infringement on women’s freedom.