Granny Weatherall's 'The Aftermath Of Being Jilted'
Latoya Rudd
ENGL 102 / Section: WC2
Professor Berry
September 29, 2013
The Aftermath of Being Jilted
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall portrays a determined eighty year old woman whose technique of denial and repression causes her to die without faith in her God. The story opens with Doctor Harry attempting to care for Granny Weatherall. She curses him for thinking she is ill and for talking down to her. She tells the doctor to “leave a well-woman alone.” She begins to think of all the work she needs to do around the house she believes to be hers, but is her daughter, Cornelia’s. She denies still thinking of George, her ex-fiancé, who “jilted” her the first time by leaving her at the altar. She recalls the first time she tried to prepare for death when she was sixty years old. She visited family and did her farewells. After living twenty more years, she feels she has been jilted a second time by God for not giving her time to prepare for death with a sign. She refuses …show more content…
She recalls all the “food she had cooked, al all the clothes she had cut and sewed, and all the gardens she had made.” In the midst of her reflections of her past and present situation, she repeatedly requests to see Hapsy, her favorite and last born child. Granny goes through “a great many rooms” to find Hapsy holding a baby. She sees the baby as being Hapsy herself, and Hapsy’s child as well. Granny Weatherall does not realizes that this was her sign of death from God, because she is too busy denying the fact that Hapsy is dead. This is evident in the text when it says “…John, get the doctor now, Hapsy’s time has come. But there was Hapsy standing by the bed in a white cap.” Granny Weatherall then asks Cornelia to tell Hapsy to remove the cap so that she can see her in her “plains”. Cornelia “never really acknowledges her request for Hapsy”, perhaps due to the fact that she knew Hapsy was no longer
ENGL 102 / Section: WC2
Professor Berry
September 29, 2013
The Aftermath of Being Jilted
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall portrays a determined eighty year old woman whose technique of denial and repression causes her to die without faith in her God. The story opens with Doctor Harry attempting to care for Granny Weatherall. She curses him for thinking she is ill and for talking down to her. She tells the doctor to “leave a well-woman alone.” She begins to think of all the work she needs to do around the house she believes to be hers, but is her daughter, Cornelia’s. She denies still thinking of George, her ex-fiancé, who “jilted” her the first time by leaving her at the altar. She recalls the first time she tried to prepare for death when she was sixty years old. She visited family and did her farewells. After living twenty more years, she feels she has been jilted a second time by God for not giving her time to prepare for death with a sign. She refuses …show more content…
She recalls all the “food she had cooked, al all the clothes she had cut and sewed, and all the gardens she had made.” In the midst of her reflections of her past and present situation, she repeatedly requests to see Hapsy, her favorite and last born child. Granny goes through “a great many rooms” to find Hapsy holding a baby. She sees the baby as being Hapsy herself, and Hapsy’s child as well. Granny Weatherall does not realizes that this was her sign of death from God, because she is too busy denying the fact that Hapsy is dead. This is evident in the text when it says “…John, get the doctor now, Hapsy’s time has come. But there was Hapsy standing by the bed in a white cap.” Granny Weatherall then asks Cornelia to tell Hapsy to remove the cap so that she can see her in her “plains”. Cornelia “never really acknowledges her request for Hapsy”, perhaps due to the fact that she knew Hapsy was no longer