Katherine Anne Porter's The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall

The narration of Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is told in third person. The narrator very often reveals the continuous thoughts of Granny Weatherall in language that she would use if she were able to speak out loud. Because Granny is very ill and disoriented, the thoughts pay more attention to what is happening in the present and then every so often would change to thoughts or feelings about her past. Granny Weatherall is very elderly, and the story is based on her thoughts, emotions, and past actions and how they affect her while she’s getting closer to passing away. Granny Weatherall has unrealistic thoughts about her past and present, the things she thinks about and remembers aren’t all true because of her …show more content…
She is trying not to come to closure with the fact that she is dying and still isnt over the fact of the matter about the man who jilted her on their wedding day. She refuses to believe that she is actually sick. Throughout the story Granny Weatherall continues to talk about how she had an amazing life, and that she loves John and has completely dismissed George. She talks about him often though, which leads us to believe that she is not actually over what happened between them. Also, she describes Cornelia as mean and disrespectful, but she never even comes to terms with the fact that she treats Cornelia the same way. Cornelia is the daughter of George. Weatherall was having an affair with George when she was with John. Which is why she says, “The box in the attic with all those letters tied up, well she’d have to go through that tomorrow. All those letters-George’s letters and John’s letters and her letters to them both- lying around for the children to find afterwards made her uneasy. Yes, that would be tomorrow’s business. No use to let them know how silly she had once been (Page 342, Paragraph 6).” She did not want her children to know what was really going on between George and her. Cornelia was born while Weatherall was married to John, but Cornelia was George’s daughter. The voice in Weatherall’s head is who she names Cornelia. The entire time she is remembering her past, she is speaking with Cornelia. A couple times in the story, she becomes disoriented and confused. And she blames everyone else but the fact that she has an illness. Granny doesn’t really seem to know much about how she actually lived her life. It is obvious to the reader that her children have suffered because of how difficult she has been towards them. Because Granny Weatherall has lived in denial her entire life, it has given her the strength to persevere and get things done without having