class 12 cbse english core (flamingo) aunt jennifer's tiger summary
Answers
Aunt Jennifer's TigersIn the second stanza, the reality of Aunt Jennifer is revealed as she is feeble, weak and enslaved, very much the opposite of the tigers she was knitting. Her physical and mental trauma is depicted in the line – "find even the ivory needle hard to pull". Even though a wedding ring doesn’t weigh much, "the massive weight of uncle’s wedding band, sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand" signifies the amount of dominance her husband exercised over her. This also means that her inner free spirit has been jailed by the patriarchal society.
The last stanza starts on a creepy note about Aunt Jennifer’s death. Even her death couldn’t free her from the ordeals she went through which can be seen in "When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by". But her art work which was her escape route or in a way, her inner sense of freedom, will stay forever, proud and unafraid
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.