Theme In “Jilting Of Granny Weatherall”

3 Pages 780 Words

The theme in “Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is deep in meaning and routed directly with the main character, Ellen. When Katherine Anne Porter, the author of this short story, wrote this she had a focus on the inner feelings of an old sick woman. The theme of a story is the general idea or insight that the story reveals. The theme in this short story is to having a different perception of things in death, either by understanding things that one hasn’t before or even having changed perspectives completely and see something from another light.
When Granny is sitting in the bed in the beginning of the story having her pulse taken by Doctor Harry, she is remembering the doctor being a child. She is disoriented and tells him to leave at once, to pick up his school books and go. Granny shows perfect record to the theme at this very early point in the story, her perception is distorted because of her illness and sees the doctor as he once was a child. This is how Granny remembered Dr. Harry, young and a brat. When she is in the bed she feels that he is being a nuisance to her by fiddling with her body, checking her pulse and such. This reminds Ellen of the times when Harry as a child had been annoying in another manner. Further into the story Doctor Harry returns, which to Granny Weatherall seems like a few minutes. Being as sick as she is she is wrapped up in time. She hasn’t had any “real time” because she is going through a remembering stage of death. She comments on not wanting to see Dr. Harry because he just left three minutes ago, her daughter Cornelia tells her that it was yesterday when she had seen the doctor.
Granny Weatherall starts to remember the wedding she was promised with her previous lover, George. She remembers what it had felt like being jilted by the man and how it had affected her life. She thinks that she has forgotten him, through all of these years, and is redundant to believe that she still cares a...