So let's say that you go on a reality TV dating show, meet the person of your dreams, and decide to spend the rest of your life with them. You set a wedding date, book the priest, and agree on a red velvet cake (nom). Then the big day arrives and—oops—your fiancée doesn't show. Talk about feeling abandoned. Well, that's exactly how Granny felt when George decided to ditch her at the altar. Even though Granny was jilted long before the action of the story takes place, the memory of being abandoned is so powerful that it haunts her on her deathbed—pretty serious stuff. Abandonment is even referenced in the title: "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." Want to bet Ms. Porter was trying to tell us something with that?
Questions About Abandonment
- Why is it that, on her deathbed, Granny is preoccupied with the memory of having been jilted sixty years earlier?
- How has Granny's experience of being jilted shaped who she is?
- Granny herself later points out that she later went on to marry and have kids. So why is she still so obsessed with the jilting memory?
Chew on This
Being abandoned or jilted is pretty much equivalent to dying or death in this story.
Being jilted was a formative moment that taught Granny some valuable life lessons.