Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Women who are dominated by their husbands live their lives in a state of mental confinement. In the poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” the poet Adrienne Rich expresses the life Aunt Jennifer wishes to lead through artistic creations as she is trapped in an abusive marriage. Her tapestries portray her inner feelings conveying the constant terror she’s living in. The only way for Aunt Jennifer to escape the expectations of her husband is to …

…their lives in a state of mental confinement. Adrienne Rich proves this statement throughout the poem, revealing that women are sometimes treated with unfairly and with inequality. “Ringed with the ordeals she was mastered by.” It is devastating to see a woman’s self-identity and worth torn away from her, leaving her completely miserable. Aunt Jennifer dedicates herself to creating her tigers in her needlework because that was all she had left to live for.