The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter (page 834)
1. Define jilting To abruptly break off a romantic relationship with someone. A jilting is a bad,
sudden, romantic break-up. Granny was jilted by George when he left her at the marriage altar.
Granny “put on the white veil and set out the white cake” for her wedding day, but George did
not come (838).
2. Who is John? What is the history here? How does Granny Weatherall feel about him? If she
wants to feel certain ways rather than others, what are the motives that lead her to want to feel
the way she wishes to? John is the man that Granny married (after George) and the father of her
children. John died while still a young man, and therefore was not around to help Ellen (Granny)
raise the children. Granny says, “She used to think of him as a man, but now all the children
were older than their father” (837). If Granny is 80 years old and her children are about 55 years
old, then her husband most likely died in his 40’s or early 50’s. The children are now older than
their father (John) was when he died. Granny wants John to know that she did a good job of
raising the children as a single mother, but the labor and difficulties (“Digging post holes
changed a woman”) of the process took away her youth.
3. Who is George? What's the history? How does Granny Weatherall feel about him? Is she
aware of all of her feelings, or has she managed to deceive herself about some of them? George
is the man who jilted Granny when he did not arrive on the day of their intended marriage.
Granny’s memories surrounding George are both pleasant and extremely painful. She
remembers that George “never harmed me but in that” (838). George was good to Ellen (Granny)
until the day that he decided not to be her bridegroom (her intended husband or finance). This
jilting caused her such great pain that she describes the memory as a “whirl of dark smoke” that
was a “hell” she preferred not to remember (838). Granny’s mind wants to talk once again with
George in order to set him straight; she wants George to know that she has had a good life with a
good husband and good children. The fact that Granny still has such strong emotions tied to
George reveals that she has never entirely healed from the jilting. Granny’s desire to connect
with George overshadows the emotions surrounding John, and therefore indicates that Granny
perhaps has not had the fullest life she once imagined having with George.
4. Who is Hapsy? What's the history? What are Granny Weatherall's feelings about this
history? Hapsy is one of Granny’s children (a girl) who has died. Granny speaks to her dead
husband, John, as if he was by her side and says, “sitting up nights with sick horses and sick
children and hardly ever losing one. John, I hardly ever lost one of them!” (837). Hapsy is the
one child she lost. Granny hopes that she will see Hapsy when she eventually dies, although she
says she is not ready to die at just this moment.
5. Who is Cornelia? How does Granny feel towards her? (Today? In respect of her standing
relationship with her?) Cornelia is Granny’s daughter. Granny is living with Cornelia and is
annoyed at the whisperings and treatment by her daughter. Granny says she’d like to “spank”
Cornelia and that Cornelia treats her as if she is “deaf, dumb, and blind” (837). Granny is not
appreciative of the fact that Cornelia has called the doctor. Granny considers this doctor’s visit a
waste of hard earned money.
Adapted from http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/sg-Porter-JGW.htm
6. What in the story suggests that Granny Weatherall is well prepared for death? In how many
respects is she not adequately prepared for it? Granny says that when she was 60 years old, she
prepared to die by creating a will and visiting all of her children. Now that she is 80 years old,
she begins to think that she might live to be over 100 as her father did. The hot toddy drink is a
symbol of youth and the pushing away of death. Some of Cornelia’s last thoughts about death
are that it comes as a “surprise” and that she hates surprises (842). Cornelia talks about all of the
small and large activities that she wants to still complete before she dies (examples include the
giving of the 40 acres, the jewelry amethyst set, the wine).
7. Does Granny Weatherall have a sound religious understanding of her spiritual condition?
Yes and no. At one point, Granny says she feels “easy about her soul” and that she has a “secret
comfortable understanding with a few favorite saints who cleared a straight road to God for her”
(841). At this moment, Granny is convinced that she will go to heaven and that her soul is
assured a place of eternal rest. By the end of the story, however, Granny looks for a sign from
God that perhaps it is not her time to die. Granny says that God does not deliver a sign, just as
God did not deliver a sign to her the day that George left her standing at the altar. She feels that
there is “nothing more cruel than this” (843). God has jilted Granny by deserting her at the
moments in her life when she most needed to feel a divine presence.
8. What comes up just before Granny's memories of the events associated with her jilting by
George? What do we find her doing when these memories arise? The memories of George come
upon her like a “whirl of dark smoke” that arises in her mind where once orderly rows stood of
good memories (838). The memories of George leaving her are a fresh hell that she fears may
destroy her. Just prior to these thoughts, Granny remembers her children and her cautions to
them about not wasting food and never letting things get lost. Is George the one that got “lost” in
her life? Is this what triggers the hellish memories?
9. Let’s look at Granny Weatherall: how does the opening of the story (down, say, through the
beginning of the paragraph when she drops her hand and notices that Doctor Harry and Cornelia
are discussing her case) present Granny Weatherall as repeatedly "in denial"? Granny pushes the
doctor away with a flick of her wrist and a pulling up of the sheet covers. Granny tries to
demean the doctor by telling him that he is a boy and doesn’t really know anything. Granny says
that the only reason she is in the sick bed is to make Cornelia stop pestering her. Granny feels
that she is not sick and that the doctor is a waste of money and time. Granny is in denial that she
is really sick and potentially facing her last moments of life.
Adapted from http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/sg-Porter-JGW.htm