Marriage as Loss of Freedom for Women
The most important theme in “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is the idea that marriage takes away women’s freedom. Through the image of “the massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band,” Rich suggests that marriage, for Aunt Jennifer at least, is a burden. We’re all probably familiar with the “ball and chain” category of marriage complaints, but Rich is saying something different. Her problem isn’t with the obligations we all have towards the people we love, but rather with the ways in which marriage functions to perpetuate male violence against women.
As a system, heterosexual marriage gives men disproportionate power. Men tend to earn more money, while women are often tasked with the day-to-day labor of maintaining the house and raising children. This means that women often lack the financial freedom to leave their husbands. Jennifer’s terror might stem from a particularly violent husband, but it also might be rooted in the knowledge that if her husband became violent, she would have no choice but to stay with him. Similarly, she is unable to pursue her own interests, because she is “ringed by ordeals”—her life is consumed with the often frustrating and tedious work of keeping a house. Through this portrayal, Rich suggests that marriage for women often constitutes a loss of freedom.
Women’s Creativity
In Rich’s own later analysis of this poem, she noted that it reflects a growing discomfort with the split between her desire to be a poet, and her still male-centered life and worldview. In “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” Jennifer lives the embodiment of a male-centered life: she is defined through and constrained by her husband. She is also a creative person. The image of tigers that she embroiders is so beautiful and full of life that it feels almost real. In “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” Rich uses irony to suggest that these two sides of Jennifer—her creativity and her patriarchal marriage—are in conflict with one another. Rich contrasts the freedom of Jennifer’s tigers against the constraint of her marriage. The tigers no longer exist purely within the image, but also function to emphasize Jennifer’s lack of freedom. The art Jennifer makes thus speaks to her lived reality, and, rather than granting Jennifer brief freedom from her daily life, instead end up making it even more obvious how little freedom she has in her own life.
