The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall Characterization

Character Development in “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” In the short story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” author Katherine Anne Porter develops the main character of Granny Weatherall in the confines of a small house from the character’s point of view. Through Granny’s life, her experiences, circumstances, and the jilting, the character of Granny Weatherall is explained, revealing a complex individual. The author in this story develops the character of Granny through the experiences of a hard life, her marriage and family, and the jilting. One of the first ways that Porter develops the character of Granny is through her hard life. Granny mentions her hard past while talking to the doctor attending her: “Where were you forty years ago when I pulled through milk-leg and double pneumonia?” (Porter 189). Sickness of this severity will claim most individuals of this time period, showing the …show more content…
Early in the story, while a doctor is treating Granny, she comments on her daughter Cornelia, “I’m on my feet now, morally speaking. It’s Cornelia. I had to go to bead to be rid of her” (Porter 189). Even while ill, Granny insults Cornelia, she cruelly comments to be away from her own daughter. In contrast to the cruel treatment of Cornelia, Granny makes every effort to find her deceased daughter Hapsy. “It was Hapsy she really wanted” Granny thinks to herself while with her other family (Porter 192). Hapsy, who is dead, represents the “unattainable” to Granny just as the jilter George is. Granny continues to dwell on her jilter as she says: “a good house too and a good husband that I loved and fine children out of him” (Porter 192). It is fascinating at the order Granny places this list. A house claims the first and most important to her, followed by her husband, and as an afterthought she states that she “loved”; she specifies the specific emotion to emphasize to herself that she