Every human allows the trials in their life to shape their character. Some are strengthened by their encounters, using them as opportunities to grow and mature. Others allow these events to slowly (or not so slowly) chip away at their happiness, self-worth, and relationships. The main character in Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is an example of a woman who allows her hardships to deeply affect her life, even when her surrounding loved ones cannot see it. Though Granny Weatherall acts like a strong, independent woman, her consciousness reveals what has been hidden behind her facade for the last 60 years.
A reader’s first impression of Granny Weatherall is that of stubbornness and self-sufficiency. Granny was given …show more content…
In the beginning, Granny reminisces about the rows of jars in her pantry with “blue whirlgigs and words painted on them” (Porter 78). Just as Granny had everything systematized in her pantry, the blue represents her stage of control. “Granny is a woman who likes to take care of details and to make plans, and in exchange she expects certain results,” writes Piedmont-Marton in her short story analysis. Granny felt relied on and her life contained a routine that she found comforting. Because Granny’s worst experiences lacked her ability to control them, she appreciates being able to organize her life at this stage. “It was good to have everything clean and folded away” (Porter 78). In a later episode of her reminisces, Granny remembers her young children crowding around her for protection as she lit the lamps in the dark night. “[They] watched the flame rise and settle in a blue curve” (Porter 80). But as soon as the lamp is lit, the children moved away because they were no longer scared. This symbolizes the stage when Granny Weatherall’s children grow up. She is no longer needed by her kids as she once was. Her days of child rearing have come to an end. Granny misses this stage of her life. “Granny wished the old days were back again with the children young” (Porter 79). Later when Granny’s family is surrounding her bed in preparation for her death, Granny sees the “blue light …show more content…
It is apparent that George did not show up on Granny’s wedding day. “What does a woman do when she has put on a white veil and set out a white cake and he doesn’t come?” (Porter 80). This is the jilting that readers expect. Later in her life, Granny marries John, but he dies, leaving Granny to care for their children on her own. She was “jilted” by John early in their marriage. “...now all the children were older than their father, and he would be a child beside [Granny] if she saw him now” (Porter 79). Though John had given her kids and a home, he was not able to enjoy them on earth with his wife. At the end of the story, Granny waits for a sign from God before she dies, but does not receive one and experiences “nothing more cruel than this” (Porter 83). Some believe that Porter was implying that Granny was being jilted by God, but “it is rather that she has betrayed, or fooled, herself into believing that the universe was an orderly place where you were rewarded for ‘tucking in the edges’ neatly” (Piedmont-Marton). Granny thought she deserved a sign from God because of her good actions, but found that they did not warrant one. She has been “jilted” by God, but has also deceived