The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
A glimpse into the mind and life of a woman dying. Let's hold her hand in these last moments. Themes of love, betrayal, and death flicker throughout this one.
The Facts
Text: The Jilting of Granny Weatherall Author: Katherine Anne Porter
Genre: Modern fiction, Drama Year: 1930
Available: Flowering Judas
Or read online here: Free!)
Content Warning: Death, dying character. Brief mention of period typical racism.
The Fiction
Why this story this week? Well you've undoubtedly heard the saying "don't judge a book by its cover." Colloquially we use this saying in our everyday lives to mean "don't judge people/things by the way they look as appearances aren't always reflective of what's on the inside." Which is a fine sentiment. However I think when we actually apply this saying to books and novels we are all a little guilty of walking down the aisles of a bookstore or library and letting the covers speak to us. Similarly, a title can play a big role in deciding whether we reach out and pull a book off a shelf.
This is all to say that while flipping through my Norton Anthology of Short Fiction browsing for this week's story it was purely the title that caught my eye. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall drew me in. Who is Granny Weatherall? How was she jilted, and by whom? What happened after said jilting? Isn't jilting a great word?
Determined to answer these question I dived into this week's story unsure of what to expect beyond the promises of the title. The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Katherine Anne Porter has very little plot. The story is told in the third person using a stream of consciousness style following Granny Weatherall's thoughts as she lays in her death bed. The story flows between Granny's thoughts about her present situation, and gets increasingly confused as time, reality, and dreams blur as Granny gets sicker. Granny reflects on her life thinking about her children, her husband, and the man she almost married, George, who left her at the alter jilting her.
Granny's family appears at her bedside alongside a priest and Granny Weatherall is forced to confront the fact that despite her earlier protests to the contrary she is dying. She waits for a sign from God but doesn't experience one. She has been left alone jilted again and reflects that this is the greatest sorrow she has ever experienced. She blows out the candle of her life herself.
The Feeling
As stated a above this story has very little plot. The intrigue comes from the style. Porter's narration is captivating and confusing. The blending and jumbling of Granny's thoughts and memories works so well for her character as a sick and dying woman. This is a great example how a story's narration can beautifully reflect a character's mental state and also tie into the theme of the story. Granny Weatherall is a captivating character. From the first sentences in her interactions with Dr. Harry we understand her as a stubborn older woman with little patience for those she doesn't respect. Since there is little plot style and voice are important elements to this story. Porter walks the line between creating a fierce, independent, and strong voice for Granny Weatherall, while also layering confusion and fear into that voice to reflect the character's deteriorating mental state.
Like many great short stories, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall takes a mundane or simple concept, and compares it with a greater one. In this case one of the main threads of Granny's thoughts, and one she keeps coming back to is George; the man who jilted her in her youth and left her at the alter. This concept of a woman being jilted at the alter resulting in expectation and profound disappointment is compared to Granny Weatherall's feelings at being abandoned by God at her death. The smaller microcosm concepts of being abandoned by a lover and a ruined wedding are paralleled with the greater macrocosm concepts off being abandoned by God and a lonely death. The disappointment, sorrow, and betrayal that Granny feels for George in the earlier parts of the story, are used to help us understand her feelings towards God at the end.
Some might think that because of the limited length of a short story they can not explore big or complex themes thoroughly. I think this story is an example of how good writing is a matter of quality not quantity. Porter manages to explore the vast themes (perhaps two of our greatest themes) of love and death in her limited word count, and she does so efficiently through the use of parallelism. Her story fits her medium. She takes the smaller theme of jilted love, an intriguing, but ultimately mundane event, and through that lens explores the larger more complex theme of death. She took her vast themes and shrunk theme down to fit the space of her story: an exploration of the mind of one character, an old woman who has experienced lost love and is soon to experience lost life. Just because the plot of this story is simple that does not mean the skill and technique used are not complex.
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall is story that makes up for its lack of plot by excelling at other areas of fiction writing. Porter's voice and style as a writer fit the character and theme of her story perfectly. The big macro ideas are explored in small micro ways fitting the scope of the short story medium.
There is nothing left to say, and whether filled with sorrow or betrayal, it is time to stretch and blow out the light.
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