Adrienne Rich is a feminist writer best known for her poems and essays written in the second half of the twentieth century. One of these poems, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” gives a beautiful and heartbreaking insight on the lives of women pre-suffrage. The symbolism used in the poem shines a bright light on the oppression faced by women of the early-to-mid twentieth century.
The first stanza of “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” appears to be just like any poem that centers on the themes of beauty and nature, however, by the context clues of knowing when the poem was written and the history of Ms. Rich, a whole new meaning begins to take shape. The first hint to this meaning comes in line three: “They [the tigers] do not fear the man beneath the tree” (Rich, l. 3). This is the first line that indicates that the poem has a heavier meaning than it first seems. This line turns the tigers into a metaphor. The tigers represent women, but not just any women, women who are able to run free, without being scared of what men will do.
The second stanza brings readers back to earth, back to reality. Back to the reality of the time, the reality that women can’t actually run free like the tigers can. The second stanza shows what it is actually like for a woman of the time period. Aunt Jennifer is weighed down by the weight of her marriage. Best case scenario: her marriage causes others to cease taking her seriously, and to instead default to her husband to make the decisions and lead their lives. Worst case scenario: Aunt Jennifer’s husband is actually the one dragging her down, refusing to allow her to have a voice and perhaps even punishing her if she goes against him even in the slightest. Either way, Aunt Jennifer is trapped by her marriage. No longer able to do what she desires to, and to live how she wishes, Aunt Jennifer must instead allow her husband to control both of their lives, living instead through her art, but even that is hard to do with her marriage weighing itself heavily over her life.
And that is simply the life that Aunt Jennifer leads. As Rich writes in stanza three, Aunt Jennifer will die, “Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by” (Rich, l. 10). Aunt Jennifer will die, never fulfilling the dreams that she lived through her tigers. But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Even after her death, her tigers will prance on. Her art and her dream and her death can inspire generations to come to fo forward and do what she never could. To go run with her tigers.
At the very least, Rich hope it does. The choice to make Jennifer be the narrator’s aunt is significant. It provides distance between the narrator and Aunt Jennifer’s pain and struggles. When coming across pain and difficult situations, many run. Distancing themselves from the situation, telling themselves that it’s not their fault or it’s not their problem. That they aren’t the one that needs to change things, to make a difference. Rich worries that not enough people with empathise with her cause. That even though they see Aunt Jennifer’s art, they won’t believe that it is in their place to interfere. Of course, modern day readers know that this worry was eventually proven to be unfounded, that the feminist movement did convince enough people and brought enough people to its side to make a difference. However, this must have been a common fear among feminists at the time, and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is a great gateway into the mind of mid-twentieth century feminists. Of their hopes and their fears.
To conclude, Adrienne Rich’s “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is an interesting look into both the life of women pre-suffrage, but also to the thoughts and feelings of feminists of the time period. It provides a great looking glass into a past mindset and, a hindsight on a time that we will hopefully never repeat. “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is the culmination of Rich’s feelings during her time fighting for women’s rights, and her hopes and worries can be felt while reading every single line.
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