Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
CBE Questions/Board Exam 2024
Theme:
● The poem addresses the constraints of married life a woman experiences.
● Aunt Jennifer represents women all over the world, particularly the women in America
during the 1950s.
● Aunt Jennifer represents women who were victims of male oppression in a patriarchal
society.
● The poem describes a woman’s struggle and silent rebellion against male domination.
● The first stanza introduces us to Aunt Jennifer’s dreams. The second stanza takes us to
Aunt Jennifer’s realistic world. The Third Stanza is a narrative of the future.
● The poem highlights Aunt Jennifer’s alternate world of freedom in her art.
(Lines 1-4)
“Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.”
Vocabulary:
1. topaz denizens: Refers to yellowish-brown inhabitants of the forest.
2. sleek chivalric : tigers move in the forest in elegant and brave pace
Paraphrase:
● Aunt Jennifer has made an embroidery design in her woolen fabric the pictures of tigers
on a tree top.
● They are the bright yellow inhabitants in the world of green i.e forest.
● They do not fear any men who are projected on a woolen fabric below the trees.
● Tigers move around in the forest displaying their movement of gallantry and physical
prowess.
(Lines 5-8)
“Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
, Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.”
Vocabulary:
1. fluttering through her wool: Her fingers move jerkily through her woolen fabric while
knitting.
2. ivory needle: Her shaking hands find the ivory needle too hard to pull through.
3. massive weight: Heavy weight of Uncle’s wedding ring suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s
marriage has become a burden for her.
Paraphrase:
● The reality of Aunt Jennifer’s marital life is depicted here.
● She is shown here to be weak and enslaved very much in contrast to the nature of tigers
that she is knitting on a woolen fabric.
● She is so scared and agitated in her married life that her fingers are shaking while knitting
through her woolen fabric.
● Even though in real life, a wedding ring does not weigh much, but symbolically it
suggests the amount of dominance her husband has exercised over her in her marital life.
● Her inner spirit has been stifled by the patriarchal society.
(Lines 9-12)
“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.”
Vocabulary:
1. terrified hands: Scared hands.
2. ordeals she was mastered by : suffering that she mastered when she was alive.
3. prancing: move quickly.
Paraphrase:
● The poet here means to say that even after her death, Aunt Jennifer would not be free
from the ordeals she went through in her lifetime.
CBE Questions/Board Exam 2024
Theme:
● The poem addresses the constraints of married life a woman experiences.
● Aunt Jennifer represents women all over the world, particularly the women in America
during the 1950s.
● Aunt Jennifer represents women who were victims of male oppression in a patriarchal
society.
● The poem describes a woman’s struggle and silent rebellion against male domination.
● The first stanza introduces us to Aunt Jennifer’s dreams. The second stanza takes us to
Aunt Jennifer’s realistic world. The Third Stanza is a narrative of the future.
● The poem highlights Aunt Jennifer’s alternate world of freedom in her art.
(Lines 1-4)
“Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.”
Vocabulary:
1. topaz denizens: Refers to yellowish-brown inhabitants of the forest.
2. sleek chivalric : tigers move in the forest in elegant and brave pace
Paraphrase:
● Aunt Jennifer has made an embroidery design in her woolen fabric the pictures of tigers
on a tree top.
● They are the bright yellow inhabitants in the world of green i.e forest.
● They do not fear any men who are projected on a woolen fabric below the trees.
● Tigers move around in the forest displaying their movement of gallantry and physical
prowess.
(Lines 5-8)
“Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
, Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.”
Vocabulary:
1. fluttering through her wool: Her fingers move jerkily through her woolen fabric while
knitting.
2. ivory needle: Her shaking hands find the ivory needle too hard to pull through.
3. massive weight: Heavy weight of Uncle’s wedding ring suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s
marriage has become a burden for her.
Paraphrase:
● The reality of Aunt Jennifer’s marital life is depicted here.
● She is shown here to be weak and enslaved very much in contrast to the nature of tigers
that she is knitting on a woolen fabric.
● She is so scared and agitated in her married life that her fingers are shaking while knitting
through her woolen fabric.
● Even though in real life, a wedding ring does not weigh much, but symbolically it
suggests the amount of dominance her husband has exercised over her in her marital life.
● Her inner spirit has been stifled by the patriarchal society.
(Lines 9-12)
“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.”
Vocabulary:
1. terrified hands: Scared hands.
2. ordeals she was mastered by : suffering that she mastered when she was alive.
3. prancing: move quickly.
Paraphrase:
● The poet here means to say that even after her death, Aunt Jennifer would not be free
from the ordeals she went through in her lifetime.
