The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall Summary

As people get older, they reminisce about events in their past. Sometimes the memories and stories are happy or funny and other times, they are more serious and sober. Growing old can be both a sad and happy time of life because the elderly are not able to be as active and involved as they once were but they can still enjoy reflecting on many fond memories. They have so many stories to share and lessons to teach. It can be very sad, though, when a person is frustrated and saddened by getting older and just wants to continue living as they have become accustomed. In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”, Katherine Anne Porter shows how one elderly woman is in denial about old age, illness, and her impending death.

The people around Granny Weatherall

When Dr. Harry comes in to check on her, Granny Weatherall’s defiance is apparent when she says to him, “’Get along and doctor your sick.’ While her body is failing, her mind is sharp and she says to him, ‘Leave a well woman alone. I’ll call for you when I want you.” Granny Weatherall is very ill but, in her mind, she believes that she will feel healthy and strong again because her current state is only a temporary condition. She tries to refuse the doctor’s orders and efforts because she feels her condition will pass. However, as the doctor leaves, she is unable to wave goodbye or even keep her eyes open because she is so frail. “She meant to wave good-by, but it was too much trouble. Her eyes close of themselves, it was like a dark curtain drawn around the bed.” Wanting to believe that she will fully recover, Granny Weatherall does not want her daughter, Cornelia, to tell the doctor how ill she really is and that she does indeed need the doctor’s care. She reinforces this

Years ago, when she was sixty, Granny “had felt very old, finished” and thought that she was going to die so she went to see them all and said goodbye to her family. This time, however, seems different. Drifting in and out of the present and her physical exhaustion make her feel more uneasy than she had been with Cornelia and the doctor. When reminiscing, Granny seems surprised and sad that her life evolved from a time when she was vibrant and had young children. “Granny wished the old days were back again with the children young and everything to be done over.” However, not all of Granny Weatherall’s youth was enviable. She and her husband, John, lost a daughter, Hapsy. “There, wait a minute, here we are!” John, get the doctor now. Hapsy’s time has come.” Now, at the end of her life, Granny talks about how she sees Hapsy and indication that she is going in and out of heaven by reuniting with her dead daughter. This straddling of life and death makes Granny happy because she missed a lifetime with Hapsy and is now able to be with her and, “It was Hapsy she really wanted.” Hapsy loves Granny Weatherall, her mother, and tells her that she “thought you’d never come” and that she has not “changed a bit.” Unfortunately, the end for Granny