Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS

Question.1. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid

(a)  Why are Aunt Jennifer’s hands terrified?
(b) Why is she “ringed with ordeals”?
(c) What is the difference between her and the tigers?
(d) Why has Aunt Jennifer created the tigers so different from her own character?

Answer.(a) Her hands are ‘terrified’ (actually she is terrified) as she is passing through the very hard and bitter experience of married life. Here the poet has used her hands to represent her.

(b) The ‘ring’ here refers to her wedding band or ring, which has brought with it a host of family responsibilities. She feels so surrounded (i.e. ringed) by her marital constraints that it seems like an ordeal to her.
(c) Aunt Jennifer is quite weak and submissive, whereas the tigers are strong, bold and powerful. She is bound by the constraints of her married fife, while the tigers are free to move about in the green woods.
(d) The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are an expression of her desire to free herself from the constraints of her married life. She wants to be bold and fearless like her tigers.

Question.2. How are Aunt Jennifer’s tigers different from her?
Answer. Aunt Jennifer’s tigers are created by her on the tapestry. However, they present a sharp contrast to their creator. While the Aunt is weak, meek and submissive and is scared of expressing her feelings openly, the tigers are strong, fearless and confident. They are bold creatures and are scared of no one. The aunt is in bonded in matrimony and faces several restrictions. Qn the other hand, the tigers move about freely. Aunt Jennifer’s tigers provide a striking contrast to her. The old lady is weak and- scared of men, whereas the tigers symbolize strength, power and fearlessness.

Question.3. How does Aunt Jennifer express her bitterness and anger against male dominance?
Answer. Aunt Jennifer is too terrified to openly resist the oppression that she is victim of. She expresses her bitterness and anger against male dominance silently through her art. She creates tigers on her tapestry; animals that are symbolic of bravery, fearlessness and strength. Besides, she portrays these tigers as creatures unafraid of the men around them. The tigers she creates are wild and free from any kind of bondage.

Question.4.What will happen to Aunt Jennifer’s tigers when she is dead?

Answer. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are eternal. They will keep on prancing even after her death. She probably wants to convey that the tigers which represent the Aunt’s inner sense of freedom will stay forever.

Question.5.What lies heavily on Aunt Jennifer’s hand? How is it associated with her husband?
Answer. The weight that lies heavy on Aunt Jennifer’s hand is the wedding band, which symbolises the weight of her married life. Probably, the weight has burdened her so much that she feels subjugated. Aunt Jennifer had a troubled married life with a dominating and oppressive husband.