CBSE Class 12 English Aunt Jennifers Tigers Worksheet Set E

Question. What does the title of the poem suggest to you? Are you reminded of other poems on tigers?
Answer.  The title, "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers", suggests that the poem is about Aunt Jennifer's knitted tigers that, with their chivalric, ferocious, bright and carefree attitude, become an alternate world of her creation. The tigers are the only means of free expression in her life, which is otherwise burdened by fear and struggles of the married life. There are many other poems written about tigers, some of which are given below. "The Tiger" by William Blake "Tiger" by Alec Derwent Hope "Tiger Drinking at Forest Pool" by Ruth Padel (A model answer has been provided for students' reference. It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.)

Question. How do 'denizens' and 'chivalric' add to our understanding of the tiger's attitudes?
Answer.  Animals naturalised in a region or the inhabitants of a particular region are called denizens. Since the natural habitat of the tigers is forest, the poet has correctly defined it as 'denizens of a world of green'. Tigers are characteristically masters of their own domain. The poet also refers to the tiger as being 'chivalric'. The exceptional heroic courage when facing danger is termed as chivalry. To explain this, the poet goes on to say that the tigers were not afraid of the men standing under a tree and went on prancing with 'certainty'. Since tigers are brave, ferocious and gallant creatures, the poet has used the term 'chivalric'.

Question. Why do you think Aunt Jennifer's hands are 'fluttering through her wool' in the second stanza? Why is she finding the needle so hard to pull?
Answer.  Aunt Jennifer's hands are 'fluttering through her wool' because she is an old lady on whom age has taken its toll. The fluttering of Aunt Jennifer's fingers also signifies her oppressed mental condition which makes it difficult for her to even pull an ivory needle while embroidering.

Question. What is suggested by the image 'massive weight of Uncle's wedding band'?
Answer.  The 'wedding band' that the poet talks about was the wedding ring worn by Aunt Jennifer. The image 'massive weight of Uncle's wedding band' suggests that she was overburdened with duties and responsibilities, post her marriage.

Question. Of what or of whom is Aunt Jennifer terrified with in the third stanza?
Answer.  Aunt Jennifer is, probably, terrified of the oppression of her chauvinist husband. She lives her life under constant pressure of duties and responsibilities of a married lady. The image of the wedding ring, even after her death, suggests that there is no escape whatsoever from the conventions of her marriage and that she had to succumb to them.

Question. What are the 'ordeals' Aunt Jennifer is surrounded by? Why is it significant that the poet uses the word 'ringed'? What are the meanings of the word 'ringed' in the poem?
Answer.  Aunt Jennifer has been living her life in accordance with the rules laid down by her husband. Her life lacks expression and is overburdened by the demands and duties of her married life. Although old and weak, she still has to face oppression by her husband. These are the ordeals that the poet talks about. The use of word 'ringed', in the poem, is significant and appropriate because it correctly represents the vicious circle from which Aunt Jennifer is unable to free herself. The word 'ringed' not only indicates that she is wearing her wedding ring but also that she is bound by the responsibilities, fear and oppression of her marriage for entire life and, probably, after it too.

Question. Why do you think Aunt Jennifer created animals that are so different from her own character? What might the poet be suggesting, through this difference?
Answer.  In creating animals that are different from her own character, Aunt Jennifer found a means of living an alternate life that is denied to her: a life that is proud, free, fearless and sure of itself. The tigers denote her yearning for power, freedom and fearless living. Through this difference, the poet may be indicating the prejudices of the patriarchal society that is unfair to females, especially the married ones. (A model answer has been provided for students' reference. It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.)

Question. Interpret the symbols found in this poem.
Answer.  The poet has expressed his views and concerns in the poem through a number of symbols. These include tigers, the men, a screen and, the most importantly, a ring. Aunt Jennifer has created tigers on a screen. These tigers symbolise Aunt Jennifer's silent yearning for a life of freedom and power. The screen on which she knitted the tigers may represent the world in general. The men beneath the tree may represent people like her husband. She makes her tigers fearless, proud and free to prance about the screen or the world. The symbol of the heavy wedding ring she wore on her finger represents the ordeals and burdens of her married life which caged her in a vicious circle that, the poet indicates, will continue even in her death just as in her life. (A model answer has been provided for students' reference. It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.)

Question. Do you sympathise with Aunt Jennifer? What is the attitude of the speaker towards Aunt Jennifer?
Answer.  Yes, the character of Aunt Jennifer wins our sympathy as a reader. Her ordeals and sufferings move the reader. Even the speaker in the poem shows sympathy and pity towards her. The speaker says that even after Aunt Jennifer's death, she will be terrified of her husband and the ordeals of her marriage

Question. What ideology does Aunt Jennifer’s poem propound?
Answer. The poem ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ is critical of the male world. It criticises the male society for terrifying and oppressing women likes of ‘Aunt Jennifer’.

Question. How has Aunt Jennifer created her tigers? What traits of tigers do they reveal? 
Answer. Aunt Jennifer has embroidered the tigers on a panel with an ivory needle and wool. The tigers that she has created are wild and free. Bright golden yellow denizens of the green forest. They are fearless and bold, jumping around with confidence, totally opposed to her own character.

Question. What do you mean by the certainty that the tigers possess?
Answer. The tigers used to fear the men. But once they were made by Aunt Jennifer, they learnt courage. In their new birth, these tigers feel at ease and confident. Now they do not have to run away from anyone. They move slowly. They run ferociously

Question. How does the poet describe Aunt Jennifer’s tigers? 
Answer. The poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s tigers as ‘bright topaz denizens’ of the forest. They are fearless. They pace in ‘sleek’ chivalry.

Question. 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. These tigers are born out of her imagination in response to the oppression she goes through in the patriarchal society.

Question. What is the weight that lies heavy on Aunt Jennifer’s hand? How is it associated with her husband? 
Answer. Aunt Jennifer had a troubled married life with a domineering and oppressing husband. She tries to find refuge in art to fight these demons, but even here there is no respite. This makes her hand quiver so much that when she find it hard to knit.

Question. How are the tigers different from her? 
Answer. The tigers of Aunt Jennifer were quite different from her. In fact they are exactly opposite of her oppressed, submissive personality. The tigers are a symbol of strength, fierceness and beauty.

Question. What picture of male chauvinism (tyranny) do we find in the poem, ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’?
Answer. It shows constraints that a married woman experiences. Uncle’s wedding band on Aunt Jennifer’s hand symbolizes oppressive band of patriarchal society. Aunt Jennifer is forced to live in accordance with rules laid down by her husband. She does not have any freedom.

Question. How does beauty help us when we are grief stricken?
(a) By giving a ray of hope
(b) sprouting a shady boon
(c) by giving daffodils
(d) none
Answer: a

Question. What does poet mean by Some shape of beauty?
(a) beauty has no shape
(b) beauty is abstract
(c) beautiful object that gives happiness
(d) All
Answer: c

Question. Which figure of speech is used in the words-Some shape of beauty?
(a) Alliteration
(b) simile
(c) metaphor
(d) all
Answer: c

Question. Why are our spirits referred as dark?
(a) because of dark clouds
(b) because of spirits around
(c) because of shady trees
(d) because of sadness and disappointments
Answer: d

Question. What does morrow mean?
(a) morning time
(b) present time
(c) noon time
(d) the next day
Answer: d

Question. Why do we need a flowery band?
(a) to look beautiful
(b) to smile
(c) to be joyful
(d) to have strength and joy inspite of all sadness
Answer: d

Question. What is inhuman in life?
(a) human inside a river
(b) human inside caves
(c) human on trees
(d) selfcentred tendency and inacility to rise above shallow circles
Answer: d

Question. What circumstances make man unhappy?
(a) chilly cold waves on mountains
(b) moisture of flowing rivers
(c) crowded places
(d) tendency of hopelessness
Answer: d

POEM-5-AUNT JENNIFER'S TIGERS

Question. Who is the poet of the poem Aunt Jennifer‘s Tigers?
(a) Adrienne Rich
(b) Jonathan Aaron
(c) J. H. M. Abbott
(d) Mark Abley
Answer: a

Question. What is the poet known for?
(a) She is widely known for her involvement in contemporary women‘s movement as a poet and theorist
(b) for her beauty
(c) for her philosophy
(d) for her poems
Answer: a

Question. How many volumes of poetry has she published?
(a) 18
(b) 29
(c) 39
(d) 19
Answer: d

Question. What does echo through her work?
(a) A strong resistance to racism and militarism
(b) her love for poetry
(c) her passion of essay writing
(d) her wish to publish her work
Answer: a

Question. What issue does the poem Aunt Jennifer's Tigers address?
(a) constraints of women
(b) constraints of married life a woman experiences
(c) constraints of women as a poet
(d) None
Answer: b

Question. What do you understand by the words ‘denizens’ and ‘chivalric’ in the poem?
(a) The dominant and highly arrogant attitude of the wild animal-tiger
(b) tiger is a wild animal
(c) tiger is hungry
(d) beauty of the tiger
Answer: a

Question. Which words depict the dominant and arrogant attitude of the wild animal in the poem ?
(a) dominant
(b) arrogant
(c) adorable
(d) denizens and chivalric
Answer: d

Question. What do aunt Jennifer's fluttering hands through her wool in the second stanza tell us?
(a) the lost freedom and fear of Jennifer's mind because marital restraints
(b) her old age
(c) her love for embridery and knitting
(d) her love for tigers
Answer: a

Question. Why is she finding the needle so hard to pull?
(a) because of fluttering fingers
(b) because of trembling hands
(c) because of her fears
(d) because of the heavy weight of her marriage ring
Answer: d

Question. What does the image 'massive weight of the wedding band ' mean?
(a) wedding bond of hard married life
(b) fatty structure of uncle
(c) fatty body of aunty
(d) heavy body of tiger
Answer: a

Question. Of what or of whom is aunt Jennifer terrified of in the 3rd stanza?
(a) of tigers
(b) of her death
(c) of her old age
(d) of her dominant husband
Answer: d

Question. What are the ordeals aunt Jennifer is surrounded by?
(a) wild animals
(b) old people
(c) a heavy crowd
(d) heavy responsibilities of married life
Answer: d

Question. What is the significance of the word ringed?
(a) responsibilities
(b) heavy duties
(c) fatty people
(d) responsibilities that formed circles like a ring eurrounding her finger
Answer: d

Question. What is the meaning of the word 'ringed'?
(a) circles of a ring
(b) her wedding ring around finger
(c) circles of responsibility of married life
(d) none
Answer: c

Question. What is the purpose of creating animals which are completely a contrast to aunt's character?
(a) to show her strength and ability of not giving up in the face of difficulties
(b) her courage
(c) her fears and strengths
(d) none
Answer: a

Question. What is the poet suggesting through the different nature of characters in the poem?
(a) Diversity in nature
(b) all are different and unique
(c) simultaneous nature of fears and strengths of aunt. Though she has fears, yet she is not defeated by them
(d) all
Answer: c

Question. Tell and interpret the meaning of 'Denizen of aworld of green'.
(a) forest haters
(b) forest lovers
(c) forest dwellers
(d) all
Answer: c

Question. What is the attitude of the poet or speaker towards aunt Jennifer?
(a) critic
(b) very harsh and rude
(c) indifferent
(d) full of appreciation and sympathy
Answer: d

Question. Does Aunt Jennifer need sympathy?
(a) yes
(b) no
(c) no, more than sympathy she deserves praise
(d) none
Answer: c

Question. What is the wedding band?
(a) ring
(b) ring ceremony
(c) marriage between uncle and aunt
(d) All
Answer: c

Question. What did marriage bring for Jennifer?
(a) unhappiness
(b) loss of freedom
(c) loss of freedom and burden as if she has put on a heavy band
(d) a heavy mountain
Answer: c

Question. What is still fresh in Jennifer's mind?
(a) happy moments
(b) early days of marriage
(c) uncle's attitude
(d) the old unhappy memories
Answer: d

Question. What did ordeals or tough times do in Jennifer's life?
(a) they made her a hard hearted person
(b) she developed hatred
(c) she became weak
(d) they crushed her artistic personality
Answer: d

Question. Where do aunt's tigers belong?
(a) to a cage
(b) zoo
(c) mountains
(d) world of green forests
Answer: d

Question. What is the poet conveying through aunt Jennifer's tiger?
(a) wild life
(b) courageous tigers
(c) tigers and their courage
(d) female existence and their fear of men
Answer: d

Question. Interpret terrified hands.
(a) Physical condition of aunt
(b) mental stae of aunt
(c) tensed ,troubled physical and mental state of aunt Jennifer
(d) fears of aunt
Answer: c

Question. What is the tone of the poem towards the end?
(a) happy moments
(b) resolving
(c) hopeful
(d) sad and tensed
Answer: d

Question. How are aunt Jennifer's tigers different from her?
(a) aunt lives in a city and tigers in forests
(b) aunt is old and tigers are young
(c) tigers are courageous and carefree and aunt is terrified
(d) none
Answer: c

Question. What is aunt Jennifer loaded with?
(a) weight of rings
(b) weight of tigers
(c) burden of household work
(d) heavy responsibilities of married life
Answer: d

Question. What lies heavily on aunt Jennifer's hand?
(a) needles
(b) embrideries
(c) work pressure
(d) wedding ring
Answer: d

Question. What does wedding ring represent?
(a) beauty
(b) expenses
(c) unnecessary pressures of her dominant husband and responsibilities of married life
(d) none
Answer: c

Question. How do the Prancing tigers look?
(a) just like diamond
(b) just like Topaz
(c) just like coal
(d) just like stone
Answer: b

Question. Why did aunt embroider tigers on the panel?
(a) to express her supressed feelings
(b) to express her strenghths
(c) to express her fighting spirit of a warrior
(d) All these
Answer: d

Question. Why are tigers given the name Aunt Jennifer's tigers?
(a) because she created them as an expression to her inner feelings
(b) because she brought them
(c) because she bought them
(d) because she nurtured them
Answer: a

Question. How are tigers described in the poem?
(a) as ferocious
(b) fearless
(c) chivalric
(d) All these
Answer: d

Question. What is the meaning of the word 'Chivalric'?
(a) ferocious
(b) fearless
(c) commanding and demanding high respect
(d) None
Answer: c

Question. What would Jennifer's terrified hands tell after her death?
(a) story of her life
(b) her constrained married life
(c) her strength to find her ways and beat the fears
(d) All these
Answer: d

Question. What is presented through uncle's character?
(a) Male strength
(b) Man is powerful
(c) man is like tigers
(d) male chauvinism
Answer: d

Question. Where are the tigers sleeping?
(a) on the trees
(b) on the mountain top
(c) in the cage
(d) in the caves
Answer: d

Question. What is Aunt doing in the poem?
(a) Cooking
(b) Embroidery
(c) Reading
(d) Sleeping
Answer: b

Question. The attitude of the poet towards Aunt Jennifer is that of
(a) hatred
(b) love
(c) sympathy
(d) casual
Answer: c

Question. Massive‘ means
(a) high
(b) huge
(c) minimum
(d) small
Answer: b

Question. ‘Proud‘ and ‘unafraid‘. These two adjectives have been used for
(a) the uncle
(b) the males in the society
(c) the tigers on the forest
(d) the tigers on the panel
Answer: d

Question. She was mastered by is a reference made to the
(a) hardships and difficulties that Aunt Jennifer faced during her lifetime
(b) she was a slave
(c) he had a rude master
(d) her teacher taught her nothing
Answer: a

Question. Still ringed‘ means
(a) oppression will continue
(b) too many rings on her fingers
(c) ring of the bell
(d) quiet and peaceful
Answer: a

Question. Aunt Jennifer‘s family consists of
(a) she and her husband
(b) she and her tigers
(c) she and her kids
(d) she and her servants
Answer: a

Question. The word ‘chivalric‘ in the context means
(a) timid
(b) arrogant
(c) honourable and brave
(d) malicious
Answer: c

Question. The word ‘prance‘ in the poem means
(a) to jump ahead
(b) to dance
(c) to eat
(d) to prowl
Answer: a

Question. The massive weight of Uncle‘s wedding band is a subtle reference to
(a) male oppression
(b) suppression at the hands of her husband
(c) the heavy gold ring
(d) the huge gold wedding band makes her uncomfortable
Answer: b

Question. What is Aunt Jennifer doing with wool?
(a) she is embroidering a wall panel
(b) she is knitting a scarf
(c) she is making a ball of wool
(d) she is knitting a cap
Answer: a

Question. The rhyme scheme in stanza one is
(a) aabb
(b) abab
(c) ABC
(d) abbe
Answer: a

Question. They pace‘ is referred to
(a) the human beings
(b) Jennifer‘s family members
(c) the tigers
(d) the lions
Answer: c

Question. Denizens‘ of a world of green means
(a) residents of forests
(b) residents of green buildings
(c) live in green cages
(d) live in green grasslands
Answer: a