Having read “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter once before, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the short story. With more understanding of the story now, it is much easier to consider the how Granny’s actions are acceptable rather than rash at times. Granny’s character is one where everyone can relate to because each one of us manages to feel sorry for her through the problems she must face along her long road to death. I also found myself wanting her to get to see George one more time, because she loved him so much. From the realization that Granny Weatherall doesn’t have much time left, being eighty years old, it is easy to sympathize with her. Granny is an old woman who is constantly nagged by her daughter, Cornelia, about being old and not wanting her to do anything around the house. I can relate to that perfectly. My grandfather was very ill because of the chemotherapy he took when battling lung cancer in the summer of 1999. He ended up dying in August of that year, but he never thought of himself as being sick. On the contrary though, Granny sees this as a setback because she is not sick, even though she is on her deathbed, and feels the doctor should, “Get along and doctor your sick. Leave a well woman alone” (271). Granny also scolds Doctor Harry by saying, “Where were you forty years ago when I pulled through with milk-leg and double pneumonia?” (271). While being aware of her condition before, I feel it is simpler to understand why she didn’t want Cornelia around because she was such a nuisance. Cornelia only made it worse for her, being her daughter, as she, “and Doctor Harry were whispering together” (271).Also, this time around I came to realize that one of Granny’s other daughters, Hapsy, who had died at an early age, was being summoned to see her mother before she fell to her fate. Hapsy was her...
