The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall Summary

Events from the past can always change the way your life in smalls ways, but effectively alter your future. In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” the main character, Ellen “Granny” Weatherall, is introduced in a state where she has bitter personality. This proves to be crafted intentionally by the author as the story progresses. In all, she truly was a worrisome woman. Throughout “Granny” Weatherall’s life the author had used symbolism to show a development in her character through various life events, along with a stream of consciousness which allows the reader to experience Granny’s life through her eyes.

Symbolism could be seen throughout the plot of the story. A continuous symbol that appears would be a light. This light was first introduced when she began to speak about her children, and how the light they lit together was beautiful. After that she began to pray to God; which could lead the create the assumption that this light could be Ellen fighting to stay

alive. Later within the story, the author makes a small alteration in what the light’s significance is. Ellen see’s a lightning flash in her dreams and it caused her to panic worrying over her children, but snapping back to reality she sees all her kids worrying over her. This could be seen as her life coming to a close, as if the light were about to perish. At Ellen’s death, she, and her light, were surrounded by darkness. The darkness could be seen as death itself. Her final action was to blow out the small candle, which in all, showed that she accepted her death.

The plot was in third person, but consistently showed signs of stream of consciousness.This helped in providing solid evidence in her complex character development since in the beginning of the story she acted as herself.

As the story continued, she reminisced on the past, which took her away from reality, and made her see only her past or her wishes. One example would be when she stated that her daughter was to good, that she would want to spank her, but in reality Granny only wanted to praise her daughter for how well she had become. Later on we find out about her jilting, and with her thought being poured out to the reader, her true feelings had been spilled. She spoke of how hurt she was, but that she had forgotten of such an event. This all was intention by the author to give a backstory for her to provide more information about her. The stream of consciousness allowed the reader to dive deep into Granny’s heart and allowed one to see she was still hurt from the jilting even on her

deathbed.