meaning of "still ringed with ordeals she was masterd by"

When aunt is dead, her hands will show the scars and evidence of her work from what she did (such as fashioning the scene with the tigers).To ring something in is to enclose it. Aunt's life is confined to these activities, not free. However, women also wear wedding rings, and part of her oppression comes from marriage and the subservience to men it may imply. Thus AUNTJENIFERis an icon, from a feminist perspective, of the defeated woman.