“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter is a short story that incorporates an elderly woman’s final moments. Granny, the main character, is dying she ventures through a real world while constantly returning to her fantasy inside of her head. Although very ill, Granny reveals her pass through her mind set fantasies. Explaining why she is so bitter and not wanting to die just yet. Granny tells God that she is not ready to die, she ask him to show her a sign, but Granny does not recognize one. Granny feels abandoned by God, because he did not show her a sign of her liking. Throughout the life of Granny, Porter ends the story by explaining Granny’s struggles with her unforgiving nature, hardships in life, and her unfailing love …show more content…
She lying in a bed in her daughter Cornelia’s house. The room filled with memorabilia of Granny’s person items. “The tall black dresser gleamed with nothing on it but John’s picture, enlarged from a little one, with John’s eyes very black when they should have been blue” (Porter). These past innuendos are taking Granny back and forth between the real world and then mind set of her fantasy. DeMouy states in her short story criticism, “Porter calls these experiences into shape by a single word and frequently juxtaposes them before they dissolves and merge into on another.” Her ill mind does not know between what is factual or fiction, so her mind combines the two to where she thinks everything is reality. On the nightstand beside the bed, lays sacred items. “The table by the bed had a linen cover and a candle and a crucifix” (Porter). This gives off a religious atmosphere, it mentions Granny’s rosary. Granny holds it in her hand during this whole story until Granny passes and it falls out of her hand. “The rosary fell out of her hands and Lydia put it back. Jimmy tried to help, their hands fumbled together, and Granny closed two fingers around Jimmy’s thumb. Beads wouldn’t do, it must be something alive.” (Porter) With the combination of the crucifix and the rosary, it leads to believe that Granny did indeed believe in …show more content…
These unwanted events has led her to being hard headed and determined to not let her compassion come forth. Granny has never forgiven either John or George for leaving her alone in life. In Robert Sprich’s literary criticism, A Closer Look, “Yes, she had changed her mind after sixty years and she would like to see George. I want you to find George. Find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him”. Even in her last moments, she still has the need to announce that he did not mean anything to her. Going through this just made her personality slowly change. Everything she has been through has assisted in her personality until death. “Now, at the moment of death, she again asks God for a sign. “God, give a sign! For the second time there was no sign.” Until this moment we haven’t known that she turned to God at the time of the jilting and received no sign, thus in effect being jilted by God too”. (Sprich) This proves that everything that Granny endured has lead up to this final moment of never forgiving God for taking John away from her and not showing her a sign when her death was
From the very beginning of this story, it came to my attention that Granny continually repeats are "there's nothing wrong with me" and "that's for tomorrow.” This repetition, to me, shows two very important aspects about Granny Weatherall as a person – she’s stubborn and hardworking, yet procrastinates all the time. When she felt death come upon her on her bed that day, she wasn't expecting it. We know this because of the repetition of all that she needs to do and that she'll get it done tomorrow. At the same, who can blame her for not expecting it? I mean, who really expects to die every day they wake up? Sure, one knows they are going to die, but they don’t wake up planning it to happen that day. Aside from that, it stood out to me that Granny Weatherall didn’t fail to mention that she thought she was going to die once before during her sixties. From this near death experience, she somehow, in my opinion, allowed herself to think she was invisible and immortal simply because she managed to survive.
Granny is having mental flashbacks as death approaches like "a fog rose over the valley" (1296). Granny recalls events throughout her life, from being left at the altar on her wedding day, to losing a child, to coming to grips with her own death as the story reaches a close. All of these recollections and the realization of her death bring together the great ironies of the story, ironies which cause not one but two jiltings for Granny.
Granny seems to be bitter about somethings, but not about the life and love she had with her husband. Granny says, “I wouldn’t exchange my husband for anybody except St. Micheal himself.” (Porter, 210) Though not ready for death, “I’m not going, Cornelia. I’m taken by surprise,” (Porter, 270) she seems to have a purpose brought by love even in death. She had a loved one that she wanted to go see. “Granny made the long journey outward, looking for Hapsy.”(Porter, 270) Her loving, though full of loss, seems a prime example of what it means to be a
“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.
Porter and Welty both provide flashbacks and memories in their stories to help the reader see what Granny and Sister’s lives were like before everything fell apart with their families. Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is packed of the flashbacks and memories of Granny’s past relationships with the only people she loves even though are all dead. She reminisced about her youthful days when she was strong, independent, and with John, the man who stood her up at the altar and died when Granny was young. She still loves him and wants to see him, but “John would be looking for a young woman with the peaked Spanish comb in her hair and the painted fan,” (Porter 81) she believed he would not recognize her. Granny also lost one of her daughters, Hapsy along with her newborn who also died. When Granny brought those memories to the surface a fog of darkness, clouds reality and she gets lost and recalls that, “there was the day, the day, but a whirl of dark smoke rose and covered it, crept up and over into the bright field where everything was planted so c...
In the three stories, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “A Worn Path,” all three women have a petulant nature of some kind and yet still are able to find grace. Only one of these women, Phoenix Jackson, from “A Worn Path,” possesses true grace before her death. Both Granny and the Grandmother are in their final moments when the reader believes that they have been given a chance at accepting grace, and even then it is not cut and dry in Granny's case.
The narrator says “I am not sick” (Porter 77). Granny becomes angry as the doctor examines her because she thinks she is healthy when in actuality she on her death bed. The dreadful memories that Granny has been harboring in her mind for so long are contributing to her current mental state of scattered thoughts. The attitude Granny shows toward the doctor is hostile because of all the loss in her life. Granny keeps her faith although, but in her dying moment she asks for a sign from God. Granny kept her life in order but never has true devoutness towards God because of the guilt she felt and her incapability to forgive George. Memories that Granny represses impacts her negatively causing her not to live a life that she desired. Granny’s death at eighty years old was unexpected to her even though she been preparing for death since she was sixty. The amount of memories Granny still has to face keeps her drive alive to keep on living. Granny wants to live long enough to get over her humiliation and forgive
Granny’s first love George, left her at the altar on their wedding day. She thinks of the jilting as the day that ruined her planed life “ There was the day, the day, but a whirl of dark smoke rose and covered it, crept up and over into the bright field where everything was planted so carefully in orderly rows.” (Porter 270). The dark smoke is George leaving her and the orderly rows are her life. Granny Weather all tried to forget George for sixty years “For sixty years she had prayed against remembering him and against losing her soul in the deep pit of hell, and now the two things were mingled in one and the thought of him was a smoky cloud from hell…” (Porter 270). Along with the troubling thoughts of George on her death bed she also thinks she is going to
In Katherine Anne Porter’s short story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (rpt. in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 11th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2012] 286-294) the main character is Granny Weatherall. She has lived a long and very independent life, and now she is having a hard time trying to grasp onto reality. She is constantly worried about what she is going to do tomorrow, which makes it easy for the reader to grasp onto what is going on throughout Granny’s life. Granny Weatherall has spent most of her life trying to face the fact that she was never married to her first love, George. She has never been able to let go of what has caused her hurt, which turns it into something that is bitter and sour. Throughout the story Granny Weatherall shows her independent side, how organized and hardworking she is, and how she dealt with her broken heart.
...d both of them do not quite understand what being saved actually means. In the end, “when she saw the man’s face twisted close to her own (367).” the grandmother realizes that she and The Misfit are both on the same level and she is no worse than the latter. Almost like taking a look into a mirror and pondering upon one’s own reflection. The story takes a quick pause, when the author writes the line, “His voice seemed to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instance (367).” What were the thoughts that went through the grandmother’s head? What happened during the “instance” that changed the grandmother’s view on her beliefs? The sole purpose of the phrase drowns a reader with questions and uncertainty. The story makes a final closure with The Misfit’s remark on how his source of happiness by performing violent acts brings “no real pleasure in life.”
Granny Weatherall, who is an old woman of about eighty, is awaiting her death on her bed, surrounded by friends and family, desired
Also the writer uses expressions that many people let blow over their head. For example, granny tells the very young doctor that he should respect his elders, and this is a saying that most have heard many times. The piece points out (with granny’s complex thoughts), that these sayings shouldn’t be taken as a grain of sand, and that there is typically meaning behind what the speaker is saying. This is even more exaggerated for Granny Weatherall because she is dying, and these are a part of the very few words that are audible to other members of the story, so they carry a great significance to granny and her beliefs. As the story continues, Porter makes good use of the first person point of view in showing the aloneness granny is feeling. In her place, as Cornelia is speaking, there is no dialect in the story. While reading, the usage of this point of view is so astounding, that you feel as if you were lying on your deathbed in fear of what was going to happen to you. Granny makes it very clear that she is not scared, though. She claims that she has been through several illnesses and believes she will follow her father in living over a century. As she becomes
The reader learns Granny Weatherall has worked hard all her whole life, and frequently tells herself she did a good job. Granny Weatherall is determined to prove that she does not need a man figure to help her. Granny Weatherall was left at the alter and had to stand strong after. “What does a woman do when she has put on the white veil and set out the white cake for a man and he doesn’t come” (919)? Granny Weatherall then married a different man who died at a young age, leaving Granny Weatherall to a life as a single mother. Granny Weatherall thinks of events that made her stronger such as digging holes for fence posts, "riding country roads in the winter when women had their babies" (page), taking care of sick animals and sick children. Though Granny Weatherall tries to assure herself that her life has been good other events in her life will say the
The grandmother is trying to connect with The Misfit because she could sense the inner struggle he was experiencing, which is revealed in their conversation. The grandmother is not in the least concerned with God at this point, but tries to connect with the Misfit any way she can. The grandmother recognizes the Misfit as one of her own children and reaches out to touch him. It’s the moment of grace for her anyway. She reaches out because she has been touched by the Grace that comes through him in his particular suffering (Hendricks 207). After feeling like all hope was gone, “She found herself saying, "Jesus. Jesus," meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, sounded as if she might be cursing” (O’Connor 384). It seems that the grandmother is displaying a good Christian spirit, but she's 'taking the name in vain', putting her further into the category of the damned. O’Conner, further strengthens the grandmother’s façade of Christanity, when she instantly forms into a real believer, “If you would pray,” the old lady said, “Jesus would help you” (O’Conner 384). O’Conner also suggest the possibility of dramatic transformation in a person. Having just lost all of her family and threatened with death herself, the Grandmother appears to undergo a sudden and miraculous change of heart: she reaches out lovingly to the
In her bedroom, Granny is literally confined to her deathbed, revealing to the reader that death is approaching. Granny speaks of a longer life from the place her life will end, emphasizing that death could come at any moment. As her mind starts deteriorating, she begins confusing the past with the present. At one time, she remembers having to dig hundreds of postholes after her husband’s death, and enlightens the reader with the fact that “digging post holes changes a woman;” (Porter 85). The change from a genteel lift to one of harsh labor representing another type of death. She worked hard for years, foreshadowing the time she will no longer need to work. Consequently, since she familiarized herself with hard work, accepting that her death is effortless is very difficult for Mrs. Weatherall. In the end, nighttime draws near, and Porter uses the time of day to symbolize mortality; the end of day is not only passing so is Granny’s life. Similar to the candle beside her bed, Granny draws her last breath to blow out light of her own life. Just as day has its end, so does every