Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” was first published in 1930. The story is about an elderly woman named Granny Weatherall, who is on her deathbed. On her deathbed Granny remembers her life and what she went through. Granny was surrounded by her family and friends as she takes her last breath. Many scholars dispute the theme of “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” One of the most arguable themes is that the story is about heaven being real and that Granny being saved. Even though she had a mind of her own. Granny Weatherall, who is Catholic, tries to walk in Jesus’s footsteps. On her deathbed Granny thinks back to the days when her children were young. She recalls that “there was always so much to …show more content…
The blue light is mentioned when Granny is thinking of her past. The light is also mentioned to be illuminating from Cornelia’s lampshade. Catholics often perceive Mary, Jesus’s mother, in blue. I believe that there is a connection between the color blue and Mary. In Catholicism blue symbolize heavenly grace “Hail, Mary, full of grace.” If the blue light that Granny sees does symbolize Mary it would mean that Mary was there in the room. Also, this would mean that Mary is there to watch over Granny as she takes her last breath. Just like she was there to watch her own son Jesus take his last breath on the …show more content…
“Granny stepped up into the cart very lightly and reached for the reins, but a man sat beside her and she knew mans by his hands, driving the cart. She did not look at his face, for she knew without seeing” (Porter 88). Granny knew the man by his hands. She did not have to look at his face because just by looking at the man’s hands she knew who he was. This man that Granny knows is Jesus. When Jesus was crucified on the cross nails were driven into the center of his hands and into his feet. After his death Jesus appeared to his disciples and said “‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). Granny just like the disciple knew who he (Jesus) was by his hands. After Granny looked at his hands she looked down the road. “Down the road where the trees leaned over and bowled to each other and a thousand birds were singing a Mass. She felt like singing too” (Porter 88). The trees are bowing to Jesus as he makes his way down the road. Just like Catholics, do before entering the pew. This is a way of showing our respect of Jesus and what he did for us. Psalm 104:12 states “Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches”. A heavens dwell is a heavenly home, meaning God’s kingdom, Heaven.
In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter, we learn of an elderly woman who is lying on her death bed watching her life pass before her eyes. We learn, from these flashbacks, how much she has overcome and endured, and how she's put her whole heart into being a mother and wife up until her last breath, when she blew out the candle and rode with her Father in a cart to heaven. It’s this very reason why Porter, in my opinion, chose Granny as the narrator of this story; so we could see the story through her eyes, being able to relate and appreciate it better.
Similarly, in The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall, Porter discusses the regrets of an old woman revealed by her reactions to her being left at the altar and her slow death sixty years later.
Porter, Katherine Anne. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2000.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is about an older woman who is coming to terms with death, and the losses in her life. Throughout the story, Granny has many memories from her life, including ones about her children and her lovers. Granny thinks that she has accepted death, but realizes that she has not.
In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” the story is read in a lighter fashion. It involves the main character, Granny Weatherall, and her triumph through time and love. Granny fights for love and strength for her kids, despite being “jilted” by George at the alter and the issues and pains that come with that memory. Although Granny married, and had children, she never seemed to live up to the fact of her being “jilted” by George. Death is an idea that both stories start, and end with.
Having read "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter once before, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the short story. With more understanding of the story now, it is much easier to consider the how Granny's actions are acceptable rather than rash at times. Granny's character is one where everyone can relate to because each one of us manages to feel sorry for her through the problems she must face along her long road to death. I also found myself wanting her to get to see George one more time, because she loved him so much.
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” a short story by Katherine Anne Porter, describes the last thoughts, feelings, and memories of an elderly woman. As Granny Weatherall’s life literally “flashes” before her eyes, the importance of the title of the story becomes obvious. Granny Weatherall has been in some way deceived or disappointed in every love relationship of her life. Her past lover George, husband John, daughter Cornelia, and God each did an injustice to Granny Weatherall. Granny faces her last moments of life with a mixture of strength, bitterness, and fear. Granny gained her strength from the people that she felt jilted by. George stood Granny up at the altar and it is never stated that she heard from him again. The pain forced Granny to be strong.
The prevailing theme in Katherine Anne Porter's story "He" is Mrs. Whipple's concern over appearances and particularly how her neighbors perceive her actions concerning her retarded son. Many critics have written about Porter's emphasis on appearances in this story. However, what lies under the surface of the story is also interesting. Contrary to both her actions and spoken words, it is clear Mrs. Whipple inwardly feels her retarded son is an animal and that she secretly wishes for his death.
In a final moment of clarity, the grandmother becomes possessed by the Holy Spirit in a tantalizing display of the Redemption received. Even though it took her a great of pain and
Faith is something that the author lacks as she only see 's herself as this defiant child. However, this changes as she realizes that she shares a special bond with her grandmother, rather than taking care of her for an obligation. In the very last scene, the author watches her grandmother as she slowly passes away and cries with “sobs emerging from the depths of anguish,” finally realizing that she actually had a very close relationship with her grandmother, developing a type of respect. The author had always felt her grandmother’s gray eyes watching over here, like a safety net, for every move she had made (Viramontes
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is a short story written by Katherine Anne Porter in 1930. This short piece of literature depicts a story of the life of an old woman, fraught by the untimeliness and inevitability of aging, and the destruction, as well as constant degradation, of her age. The diminution of quality of life for an elderly person is evident through the protagonist’s age and ability, as well as the actions of herself and her companions. There are social, historical, and cultural characteristics exemplified in “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” such as the role women played in society, the life of an elderly woman, respect of the elderly, and jilting. All of these aspects are utilized throughout the short story to aid readers in understanding the importance of a “jilting” in a young woman’s life during this time period, and to demonstrate the effects it can continue to leave through the remainder of her days.
Granny Weatherall is prideful and has a need for control. In contrast, Miss Emily lives in a fantasy land and is obstinate. Like anyone dealing with trauma, Miss Emily and Granny must find a way to deal with it. Their differing personality traits dictate how their coping mechanisms. Granny Weatherall pushes away the hurt, and Miss Emily denies it in favor of clinging to a fantasy. Granny Weatherall and Miss Emily may both have skeletons in their closets, but what they have done with them is what separates the
Katherine Anne Porter wrote “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” to showcase how one woman responds to loss with strong faith. The reader is introduced to a feisty eighty year old woman named Granny Weatherall. Granny Weatherall is near death and while laying in her bed she starts to reminisce about past events in her life which include her being jilted by George, her fiancé. Then later on, Granny marries a man named John, who soon later dies leaving her with four kids. Granny assumes the role of both mother and father by taking care of everything for her kids. When Granny turns sixty, she prepares for death by seeing all of her kids and their children. On Granny’s bed side is Cornelia, her daughter, her doctor, and Father Connolly, a Roman
I am too old for you to guess” (MacDonald, 12). However, she is instead described as a woman that is beautiful and still looks very young, “Her slippers glimmered with the light of the Milky Way, for they were crossed with seed-pearls and opals in one mass. Her face was that of a woman of three and twenty” (MacDonald, 72). This feature of endless youth symbolizes an entity of agelessness, thus the Grandmother is shown as someone who is not human. The Grandmother can be seen as a parallel to Mary, Mother of God in Christian doctrine. Within the bible, Mary is described as “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (The English Standard Bible, Revelation 12:1). The Grandmother also has manifestations around her which represents religious connotations in the novel. Pigeons are usually present in scenes where the Grandmother talks to Irene. They were described as, “loveliest of pigeons, mostly white” (MacDonald, 13), as well as “Snow-white pigeon flew in at an open window and settled upon Irene’s head. She broke into a merry laugh, cowered a little, and put her hands to her head” (MacDonald, 20). These white
Common among classic literature, the theme of mortality engages readers on a quest of coping with one of the certainties of life. Katherine Anne Porter masterfully embraces the theme of mortality both directly and indirectly in her story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Understanding that all mankind ultimately becomes subject to death unleashes feelings of dread and anxiety in most people; however, Granny Weatherall transitions from rushing to meet her demise in her sixties to completely denying she is on her deathbed when she is eighty. Readers have seen this theme of mortality reverberated over and over in literature, but what makes this story stand the test of time is the author’s complexity. In Katherine Anne Porter’s