The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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The author
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Born in Texas in 1890; years active: 1920-1977
American journalist, essayist, short story writer,
novelist, political activist
Penetrating insight; works dealing with dark
themes such as betrayal, death, and the origin of
human evil; drawing on her own life, creating rich
blends of reality and imagination
“I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be
fiction.”
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Background
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Porter’s grandmother, Catherine Anne Porter, a
strong, matriarchal woman, was the greatest
influence on Porter’s childhood. From her, Porter
received “a sense of a woman’s being
independent, and totally in control of her world.”
Her reliance on her grandmother is apparent in
that later in her life she changed her given name
of Callie Russell to Katherine Anne Porter, her
grandmother’s name with a modification of one
letter.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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The title
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In the title, jilting can refer not only to the jilting of
Granny by George but also to Granny’s belief that
God has jilted her. The name Weatherall suggests
that Granny believes she has weathered all the
adversities of life.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Type of work
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Short story told partly with a narrative technique
known as “stream of consciousness”, a term
coined by American psychologist William James
(1842-1910). With this technique, an author
portrays a character’s continuing “stream” of
thoughts as they occur, regardless of whether
they make sense or whether the next thought in a
sequence relates to the previous thought.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Narration
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Told in third-person point of view by a narrator
who frequently reveals the thoughts of Granny
Weatherall in language that Granny would use if
she were speaking. Because Granny is
disoriented, these thoughts focus on present
perceptions one moment and on old memories
the next. Her perceptions and recollections favor
her positive view of herself.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Setting
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The action takes place in a bedroom in the home
of Granny Weatherall’s daughter Cornelia. Granny,
about eighty, is lying face up in the bed. She is
dying of an undisclosed illness. The time is
probably the late 1920s. Flashbacks, however,
date as far back as the late 1860s, when Granny's
fiancé abandoned her on the day they were to be
married.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Major characters
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Ellen Weatherall: Feisty woman of about eighty who
ruminates about events in her life as she lies dying in the
home of her daughter Cornelia. Because of her illness,
she is lucid one moment and disoriented the next. A
painful memory, one she had repressed for sixty years,
surfaces and haunts her at the hour of her death. It is the
memory of the day—sixty years before—when her fiancé,
George, jilted her. After she later married a man named
John, she gave birth to four children. John died young
but Granny carried on, rearing the children, working her
farmland and orchard, and caring for animals.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Major characters
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Cornelia: Daughter of Granny. While her mother
is on her deathbed, Cornelia takes care of her.
George: Man who abandoned Granny on the
day he was to marry her.
John: Deceased husband of Granny.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Climax
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The climax occurs when Granny cannot perceive
the presence of God as she lapses toward death.
Granny believes God is "jilting" her:
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George's abandonment of her
Sins that she believes have jeopardized her salvation
Illness
Experiencing a normal fear of death and the inability of
humans to grasp fully the concept of God
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Themes
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The Usefulness of Denial
Responding to Loss With Perseverance
Repression
Following in Christ's Footsteps
The sanctity of the human heart and the
existential loneliness of the human condition
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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A feminist approach
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Porter heroines searching for identity and
independence
Classifying her as a “granny” implicitly denies her
existence independent of her family, while using
only her surname negates her identity separate
from her marriage.
Ellen is a victim of decisions made by the men in
her life, and thus dies feeling unfulfilled.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Motif – Waste
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Exhorting an unnamed “you” to make sure that all
the fruit gets picked and none of it goes to waste
Warning against losing things
Wasted wedding cake
Anxiety about this uneaten food suggests her
sadness over wasting—losing.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Symbol – Blue
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Visualizing the neatness of the white jars labeled
in blue letters that identify their contents
Remembering the way her children watched her
light the lamps at night, leaving her once the
flame “settle[d] in a blue curve.”
“Streamers of blue-gray light” falling on her eyes
Thinking about the foolishness of Cornelia’s
lampshades, which turn the light blue
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Katherine Anne Porter
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Further readings
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Flowering Judas and Other Stories, 1930
(adapted for American radio in 1950)
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter,
1965, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World
(1966 Pulitzer Prize)
Pale Horse, Pale Rider, 1939 (American radio,
1950; British TV, 1964)