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- This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c)
- It originates from the Evil House of Cheat
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- Essay Name : 1108.txt
- Uploader :
- Email Address :
- Language : English
- Subject : Fictional Stories
- Title : "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
- Grade : 89%
- School System : High School
- Country : United States
- Author Comments : Granny Weatherall's Strengths and weaknesses
- Teacher Comments : Explain in further detail her strengths and weaknesses
- Date : 10-14-96
- Site found at : from a friend
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- Webster's dictionary described the word "jilt" as the act of breaking with a lover who does not
- want to end the relationship in a callously light-headed way. Jilting took ona double meaning in
- "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter with Granny's strength and
- weaknesses revealed by her reactions to her being left at the altar and her slow death sixty
- years later.
- The most obvious conflict of "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" was Granny struggling with
- death. She came off strong stating, "Get along and doctor your sick, leave a well woman alone,"
- and saying when she was sixty years old she had felt old and was preparing to die after writing
- her will. After getting over a long fever some twenty years earlier, Granny had once and for all
- gotten over the idea of dieing. Although trying to appear strong during her struggle with death
- and commenting she couldn't be worried now, she had ongoing illusions of her dead daughter
- Hapsy and Hapsy's baby. This showed she didn't want to die and wished she could go back to
- see her children young again and to possibly save Hapsy or at least say goodbye.
- Granny being left at the altar was the underlying conflict of the story and was actually more of
- what the story was about. Granny had internal conflicts about her being jilted and was angry at
- George, a lover from her past. Granny said she would like to find him and tell George she forgot
- him, but because he was mentioned so much she obviously had not forgotten. She wanted
- George to know she had her husband, John, and fine children, but something was missing.
- Granny had a life of hard work after the death of her husband installing fence rows with only the
- help of a young negro boy. For sixty years she had thoughts about George and was mad and
- weak at the thought of him leaving her.
- "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" was a tale of a woman who was in love and was left or
- jilted at the altar. She found another, John, and had many children who loved her. After the
- death of John, she had to work hard which changed her into a stronger harder woman by healing
- sick horses, negroes, and children. For the rest of her life she wandered about George who left
- her and what might have been. Granny Weatherall lived long and weathered all until the end,
- when for the second time in her life there was no sign given by God. Again there was no
- bridegroom and the priest was there in the house. She could not remember any other sorrow
- because the grief of being jilted twice, first by George,then by a hard life, wiped all the sorrow
- away, when her dignified and triumphant life came to an end.
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