Aunt jennifer's tiger summary line by line explanation
Answers
In the first stanza, the poet conveys the image of Aunt Jennifer's vibrant colored tigers living in a rich green landscape. These tigers, to the poet, are living life with a regalness and majesty as one would expect of tigers in the wild. What is jarring in this first stanza is the third line:
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
The tone of the poem changes in this third line of stanza number one. This line foreshadows the message of the poem and the underlying source of pain in Aunt Jennifer's life. The issue of this poem is Aunt Jennifer's dealings with and relationships with men.
This is further revealed in the second stanza of the poem. Aunt Jennifer is knitting a panel that portrays these powerful and beautiful tigers. However, the pains and burdens of her life are revealed in the line that states that her fingers
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
This line alludes to the fact of hardship and trouble in her life. It indicates that her labor in life has been tiring and hurtful and that her less-than-perfect marriage to an overbearing and demanding and maybe even demeaning husband are taking their toll on her. The poet conveys that the wedding band on Aunt Jennifer's finger is a burdensome weight - this hints that her husband is making her life miserable, as the ring is defined as a "massive weight."
In the final stanza of the poem, there is no doubt about Aunt Jennifer's terrible marriage and possibly other trouble with other men. The poet speaks of Aunt Jennifer's "terrified hands." This denotes fear, trembling, worry, and consternation in her unhappy life. Life circumstances and situations have ravished and defeated Aunt Jennifer. However, through some of this, and after her death, her tigers (that inhabit the panel that she made) will continue their bold and proud ways, oblivious to the hurt and turmoil of her life.
hope it helps!
Answer:
In this poem, the poet describes a lady whom she addresses as Aunt Jennifer. The poet also says that she is doing embroidery on a piece of cloth that could be a wall hanging or table cloth. Moreover, she has made it with beautiful tigers that are running fiercely in the green forest. Further, she describes their beauty in comparison to a topaz. As in the green background of the forest, they appear bright yellow. Company of men does not affect them as they are fearless. At this point, we can sense the contrast of behaviour between the aunt and tigers. Although tiger made by her is fierce she is afraid of her husband. According to the poet, tigers are the proud and fearless citizens of the forests. These creatures are very elegant and shiny.
In this para, the poet defines Aunt Jennifer’s fear of her husband. While doing embroidery she says that her fingers shake with the fear of her husband. As her husband does not approve her hobby of embroidery. Hence, she quivers while she is embroidering the piece of cloth. Also, it becomes difficult for her to pull the needle up and down. After that, she defines her wedding ring which her husband give her on their wedding day. In addition, she sees it as a kind of burden to wear this ring.
She feels this because her husband tortures her so much that she sees the wedding ring as a burden instead of a beautiful gift by her husband. Due to the many difficulties, she has faced in her married life that she describes the little wedding ring as a heavy band on her trembling fingers. It also means that the ring is linked with some bad experiences in the form of torture that she has faced. Further, this experience relates to the dominating behaviour of her husband.
In the last part, the poet says that though aunt’s design of tigers can easily sense her desire for freedom and fearlessness. However, the poet says that it is not possible for her to achieve this freedom during her lifetime. Only after her death, she will attain freedom. But the irony here is that even then she will be tied with chains in the form of her husband’s wedding ring. This ring is the only proof of the pains that she had faced from her husband. On the contrary, the tigers made by Aunt Jennifer will always portray her desire for living a fearless life by jumping boldly and proudly on a piece of cloth.
Conclusion of Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers Summary
By Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers summary, the poet wants to represent the life of a woman who has to live under a constant fear from her husband. Also, she will only get freedom when she will die.