The Jilting of Granny Weatherall from MVNU

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The Jilting of Granny Weatherallfrom MVNU

• By
• Katherine Anne Porter
• (1890-1980)

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Katherine Anne Porterhttp//www.famoustexans.com/
katherineanneporter.htm

• Born in Texas
• Started writing stories as a child
• Regarded as a superb short story writer
• Praised for her psychological insight

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Katherine Anne Porter

• Often based stories on her own experience
• Portrayed strong women whose idealism is
  challenged by lifes hardships
• Won Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Stories of
  Katherine Anne Porter

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Katherine Anne Porter

• For this vocation writing I was and am
  willing to live and die, and I consider very few
  other things of the slightest importance.

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My whole attempt has been to discover and
understand human motives, human feeling, to make
a distillation of what human relations and
experiences my mind has been able to absorb. I
have never known an uninteresting human being,
and I have never known two alike there are broad
classifications and deep similarities, but I am
interested in the thumbprint (K. A. Porter).
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Conflicts in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Plot

• Person vs. self
• Granny tries to forget George
• Person vs. person
• The jilting by George
• Granny against Cornelia and Doctor Harry
• Person vs. God
• The second jilting at death
• Person vs. environment
• The fence posts
• Granny against life

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Movement of Plot

• The plot does not move sequentially because of
  the stream of consciousness style.
• The events of her life, when sorted out, happen
  in this order
• Grannys first jilting at age 20
• Birth of Hapsy, milk-leg, and double pneumonia at
  age 40
• Farewells and fever at age 60
• Real death at age 80
• Grannys Death
• She fails to see a sign
• Feels she has been jilted a 2nd time
• Loses faith in her religion
• Dies without God

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Setting

• Natural and man-made
• Grannys own house and yard are the setting in
  her flashbacks.
• Heaven and Hell were there for her.
• Cornelias house
• She dies here, but she keeps confusing it with
  her own house.

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Characterization

• Granny Weatherall
• On her feetmorally speaking
• Strong willed
• Hard-working
• Raised large family alone
• Cared for livestock
• Cared for sick
• Worked for church
• Kept letters to and from George
• Has sufferedSomething not given back

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• Protagonist Granny Weatherall
• Antagonists Life and Death
• Granny developing character

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Jolting Epiphanies

• Main Events in Her Life
• 1. At 20, jilted
• 2. At 40, bore last child
• At 60, prepared to die
• At 80, loses faith
• Significance of events
• Lead her to redefine her life and faith

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Other Characters

• The children
• Like calves in the lamplight
• Dutiful (Cornelia)
• Doctor Harry
• young
• Stock character
• The Priest
• present at both jiltings
• Hapsy
• Last born child
• Favorite
• Not living
• Died in childbirth?

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Title and pt. of view

• Title
• Provides clues to the theme
• Focus is on Granny
• Her name is a play on words
• Pt. of View is a combination of limited
  omniscient and interior monologue
• Look for evidence of each type
• Stream-of-consciousness
• The confusion in the plot reflects her mental
  state

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Symbolism

• Name symbolism
• weathered all
• Images of light, fog, and darkness
• The children in the lamplight
• The ending pinpoint of light
• Others?
• Religious symbols
• Rosary
• Crucifix
• Hapsy with child Madonna and child
• Other symbols?

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Theme

• Granny was able to weather all except death
• Denial can only serve to control for so long. In
  the end there can be no denial
• Life is beautiful and hard
• Death is harder
• Who can really prepare for death?