The Jilting of Granny Weathera

“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (reprinted in Thomas R. Arp, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 7th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1998] 174) is a story of self-realization, regret, and irony. On her deathbed, a memory of sixty years ago, Granny (Ellen) Weatherall could no longer repress the day she was jilted by her husband-to-be. Voices and visions, imagined and real, linger and emerge throughout the story …

…a peaceful end and asks God for a sign telling her it is all right to let go. Ironically, the sign she is expecting to get from God never comes. This is so painful for her that she forgets the sorrow from the first jilting. Being the ultimate event that she needed at the end of her life, the sign that God did not give her brought her severe disappointment. Again, Granny Weatherall is jilted.