Granny Weatherall is eighty years old and is on her deathbed in her daughter Cornelia's house. She is in and out of consciousness, losing hours here and there in sleep. When she is conscious, she can be tenacious and rude. She recalls significant moments of her life. She recalls the first time she was jilted. This is when she was left at the altar by George. (She would eventually marry a man named Johh, the...
Granny Weatherall is eighty years old and is on her deathbed in her daughter Cornelia's house. She is in and out of consciousness, losing hours here and there in sleep. When she is conscious, she can be tenacious and rude. She recalls significant moments of her life. She recalls the first time she was jilted. This is when she was left at the altar by George. (She would eventually marry a man named Johh, the father of her children.) Even at this point in her life, decades later, the jilting of being left at the altar still stings. Being on her deathbed, old and physically weak, she feels useless. She fondly recalls how her children had always needed her. She longs for those days when she was useful and the children depended upon her for so many things in their lives. So, at the end of her life, she is despondent because she has lost that feeling of being needed. She feels "jilted" again.
She wants to see her favorite daughter, Hapsy. However, Hapsy does not come to her deathbed. She feels jilted by this as well. Repeatedly, Granny keeps trying to forget George but she can not:
Again no bridegroom and the priest in the house. She could not remember any other sorrow because this grief wiped them all away. Oh there's nothing more cruel than this--I'll never forgive it.
The jilting of being left at the altar is the primary grief in her life. The grief of dying and feeling useless reminds her of that primary grief and she unsuccessfully tries to get beyond this grief before she passes on.
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