Granny Weatherall's 'The Aftermath Of Being Jilted'
Latoya Rudd
ENGL 102 / Section: WC2
Professor Berry
September 29, 2013
The Aftermath of Being Jilted
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall portrays a determined eighty year old woman whose technique of denial and repression causes her to die without faith in her God. The story opens with Doctor Harry attempting to care for Granny Weatherall. She curses him for thinking she is ill and for talking down to her. She tells the doctor to “leave a well-woman alone.” She begins to think of all the work she needs to do around the house she believes to be hers, but is her daughter, Cornelia’s. She denies still thinking of George, her ex-fiancé, who “jilted” her the first time by leaving her at the altar. She recalls the first time she tried to prepare for death when she was sixty years old. She visited family and did her farewells. After living twenty more years, she feels she has been jilted a second time by God for not giving her time to prepare for death with a sign. She refuses …show more content…
to come to terms with her condition and the fact that she is dying. She also does not seem to acknowledge the fact that her youngest daughter, Hapsy, died during childbirth. The feelings of betrayal and abandonment can take a toll on a person’s mental and spiritual well-being which aided in Granny Weatherall feelings of being jilted by life and death.
Ellen “Granny” Weatherall is a character to be both admired and dreaded. The author, Katherine Anne Porter, creates “an intimate view into one woman’s deathbed sentiment.” She has endured a painful past of abandonment in her life that has caused her to be very strong-willed. Her name, Weatherall, is a play on words to symbolize the fact that she has indeed, “weathered it all.” From the beginning of the story, Granny refuses to believe that she is sick and that she is close to dying. Weatherall tells Doctor Harry that she is “on her feet now” – “morally speaking.” Yet, twenty years prior, she thought she would prepare for death by taking trips to see her children and grandchildren, what she believed would be, for the last time. In the beginning of the story, she again tries to prepare for her death by thinking of all the work that is still to be done such as dusting of the clock and getting rid of her letters from her ex-fiancé, George, and her deceased husband, John. This shows the confusion and denial Granny has over her inevitable death.
Granny Weatherall reflects on the days when her children were young and needed her.
She recalls all the “food she had cooked, al all the clothes she had cut and sewed, and all the gardens she had made.” In the midst of her reflections of her past and present situation, she repeatedly requests to see Hapsy, her favorite and last born child. Granny goes through “a great many rooms” to find Hapsy holding a baby. She sees the baby as being Hapsy herself, and Hapsy’s child as well. Granny Weatherall does not realizes that this was her sign of death from God, because she is too busy denying the fact that Hapsy is dead. This is evident in the text when it says “…John, get the doctor now, Hapsy’s time has come. But there was Hapsy standing by the bed in a white cap.” Granny Weatherall then asks Cornelia to tell Hapsy to remove the cap so that she can see her in her “plains”. Cornelia “never really acknowledges her request for Hapsy”, perhaps due to the fact that she knew Hapsy was no longer
alive.
And finally, maybe the most crucial moment in Granny Weatherall’s life, there is George. Granny describes her memories of George as “hell [that]…she had prayed against remembering him and against losing her soul in the deep pit of hell …” She tries to repress her ex-fiancé, George, for “jilting” her at the altar but find herself continuously mentioning him and what he did to her. She felt guilty for still thinking of George while being married to John. She is in denial that George still holds a place in her mind and heart. She also still has all of their letters to each other which must mean she still cares. Her relationship with her dead husband, John, seems to be secondary to the life she imagined with George. She seems to work exceptionally hard for John’s approval, seeing that he was the last man to bid her worthy of love and companionship. This is shown when Granny wishes that “sometimes she wanted to see John again and point to them and say, Well, I didn’t do so badly, did I?”
The betrayal of George seems to be the subsequent cause of all the things that happens after he “jilts” her at the altar. Granny Weatherall’s hard life has caused her to be in the ill confused state she finds herself in as she is dying. This is due to a long life of working hard and caring for everyone but herself. She remembers when she was well enough to post holes to fence in a hundred acres, this makes her feel “like an independent woman. She makes it known that she is now able to stand tall and she does not need a man to help her do her job.” The reoccurring theme of the events that take place in Granny Weatherall’s life is abandonment and betrayal. She feels that George, John, and Hapsy abandoned her without any sign of God, whom she believes has betrayed her by surprising her with death.
Works Cited
Gaiolini, Kelly. Blog at WordPress. 4 March 2012. .
Hiles, Megan, Stephanie Reigh and Michelle Targonski. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. Essay. n/a: n/a, 2010.
Porter, Katherine Anna. "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Delbanco, Nicholas and Alan Cheuse. Literature Craft and Voice (Single Volume - Fiction, Poetry, and Drama). New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. 260-266.
ENGL 102 / Section: WC2
Professor Berry
September 29, 2013
The Aftermath of Being Jilted
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall portrays a determined eighty year old woman whose technique of denial and repression causes her to die without faith in her God. The story opens with Doctor Harry attempting to care for Granny Weatherall. She curses him for thinking she is ill and for talking down to her. She tells the doctor to “leave a well-woman alone.” She begins to think of all the work she needs to do around the house she believes to be hers, but is her daughter, Cornelia’s. She denies still thinking of George, her ex-fiancé, who “jilted” her the first time by leaving her at the altar. She recalls the first time she tried to prepare for death when she was sixty years old. She visited family and did her farewells. After living twenty more years, she feels she has been jilted a second time by God for not giving her time to prepare for death with a sign. She refuses …show more content…
to come to terms with her condition and the fact that she is dying. She also does not seem to acknowledge the fact that her youngest daughter, Hapsy, died during childbirth. The feelings of betrayal and abandonment can take a toll on a person’s mental and spiritual well-being which aided in Granny Weatherall feelings of being jilted by life and death.
Ellen “Granny” Weatherall is a character to be both admired and dreaded. The author, Katherine Anne Porter, creates “an intimate view into one woman’s deathbed sentiment.” She has endured a painful past of abandonment in her life that has caused her to be very strong-willed. Her name, Weatherall, is a play on words to symbolize the fact that she has indeed, “weathered it all.” From the beginning of the story, Granny refuses to believe that she is sick and that she is close to dying. Weatherall tells Doctor Harry that she is “on her feet now” – “morally speaking.” Yet, twenty years prior, she thought she would prepare for death by taking trips to see her children and grandchildren, what she believed would be, for the last time. In the beginning of the story, she again tries to prepare for her death by thinking of all the work that is still to be done such as dusting of the clock and getting rid of her letters from her ex-fiancé, George, and her deceased husband, John. This shows the confusion and denial Granny has over her inevitable death.
Granny Weatherall reflects on the days when her children were young and needed her.
She recalls all the “food she had cooked, al all the clothes she had cut and sewed, and all the gardens she had made.” In the midst of her reflections of her past and present situation, she repeatedly requests to see Hapsy, her favorite and last born child. Granny goes through “a great many rooms” to find Hapsy holding a baby. She sees the baby as being Hapsy herself, and Hapsy’s child as well. Granny Weatherall does not realizes that this was her sign of death from God, because she is too busy denying the fact that Hapsy is dead. This is evident in the text when it says “…John, get the doctor now, Hapsy’s time has come. But there was Hapsy standing by the bed in a white cap.” Granny Weatherall then asks Cornelia to tell Hapsy to remove the cap so that she can see her in her “plains”. Cornelia “never really acknowledges her request for Hapsy”, perhaps due to the fact that she knew Hapsy was no longer
alive.
And finally, maybe the most crucial moment in Granny Weatherall’s life, there is George. Granny describes her memories of George as “hell [that]…she had prayed against remembering him and against losing her soul in the deep pit of hell …” She tries to repress her ex-fiancé, George, for “jilting” her at the altar but find herself continuously mentioning him and what he did to her. She felt guilty for still thinking of George while being married to John. She is in denial that George still holds a place in her mind and heart. She also still has all of their letters to each other which must mean she still cares. Her relationship with her dead husband, John, seems to be secondary to the life she imagined with George. She seems to work exceptionally hard for John’s approval, seeing that he was the last man to bid her worthy of love and companionship. This is shown when Granny wishes that “sometimes she wanted to see John again and point to them and say, Well, I didn’t do so badly, did I?”
The betrayal of George seems to be the subsequent cause of all the things that happens after he “jilts” her at the altar. Granny Weatherall’s hard life has caused her to be in the ill confused state she finds herself in as she is dying. This is due to a long life of working hard and caring for everyone but herself. She remembers when she was well enough to post holes to fence in a hundred acres, this makes her feel “like an independent woman. She makes it known that she is now able to stand tall and she does not need a man to help her do her job.” The reoccurring theme of the events that take place in Granny Weatherall’s life is abandonment and betrayal. She feels that George, John, and Hapsy abandoned her without any sign of God, whom she believes has betrayed her by surprising her with death.
Works Cited
Gaiolini, Kelly. Blog at WordPress. 4 March 2012. .
Hiles, Megan, Stephanie Reigh and Michelle Targonski. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. Essay. n/a: n/a, 2010.
Porter, Katherine Anna. "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Delbanco, Nicholas and Alan Cheuse. Literature Craft and Voice (Single Volume - Fiction, Poetry, and Drama). New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. 260-266.