Hell Hath No Fury Like

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned: A character study of Granny Weatherall, from Katherine Anne Porter's 1930 short story, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" It is said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Granny Weatherall, of Katherine Porter's 1930 short story "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," is a woman on the brink, not of hell, but of eternity. Yet the scorching memory of being jilted and scorned still rankles her proud, frugal, perfectionist and controlling character, despite her life's many accomplishments.

The story is largely an extended stream-of-consciousness narrative that depicts the various thoughts and perceptions that flicker through the dying main character's mind, in a way that gives insight into the woman's character and her development from young girl, to wife, to old and respected matron. Although Granny Weatherall is not long for the world, she still emerges as a proud, determined character that has indeed weathered all, over the course of her long life. This pride has created a sense of fortitude and strength within Granny's mind and heart.

It also means that despite the many accomplishments of the woman's existence, she cannot forget being jilted by her first prospective husband. Granny cannot forgive all, even though she can indeed weather all sicknesses, climates, and most personal obstacles. Granny Weatherall's character becomes evident in the first line she speaks over the story's introduction. "Get along now. Take your schoolbooks and go. There's nothing wrong with me." She snaps at the attending, ultimately ineffectual Doctor Harry, as well as her daughter Cornelia.

Granny uses her eighty years as a defense for her caustic tone -- she should know when she needs a doctor she implies, because she has suffered more in her life than both of these two individual's existences combined.

Granny's characteristic frugality and independence are reinforced when she adds, "I pay my own bills, and I don't throw my money away on nonsense!" However, given that both the doctor and her daughter Cornelia don't react in surprise to her attitude, the reader understands that this is just Granny's upfront manner, she is not being actually rude, just her usual self.

Thus, viewing Granny's leaving of the world, as opposed to just her 'living' in the world, gives a strange and refreshing perspective on her character for the reader, because the reader is able to glean the entirety of Granny's life narrative in the main character's head, and to see the way that most of Granny's surviving relations view her. The reader is additionally able to gain a sense of the character becoming part of another existence, beyond 'character,' as the main character mentally prepares for her death.

Granny thinks of her life, snaps at Cornelia, and then, feels how "the pillow rose and floated under her, pleasant as a hammock in a light wind. She listened to the leaves rustling outside the window." For the first time in a long time, Granny, like many hard-working dying person, can lay back and reflect upon the nature and meaning of life, a luxury she did not have while she was trying to survive.

She was never like this, never like this!" says Cornelia, referring to Granny's health -- but Cornelia's remarks also reinforce that Granny has precious little time to lie in bed before, and simply 'be' -- until now, as she prepares for her life's end.

When Granny, in the wanderings of her mind, thinks she is still a young wife and mother, the hard work Granny is accustomed to doing on a daily basis, even while resting, comes through, "there was always so much to be done, let me see: tomorrow," thinks Granny.

Even now Granny takes pride in the neatness of her home, as she lies there, although she worries about the lost, resting love letters, stashed away fearing about being seen as silly, when individuals go over her personal possessions after she is gone. Granny thus accepts her eventual death, even while she worries about the arrangement of the hairbrushes on the bedside table. She had expected to die at age sixty, now she is eighty.

She "had spent so much time preparing for death there was no need for bringing it up again." But Granny wishes to control how she is remembered. She is frustrated being unable to control the thoughts and lives of others, as is evidence about her worries over her silly love letters, and thus the way she will be remembered.

This is why the memory of her jilting rankles her so much -- she had no control over the heart of the man she loved, and she wishes she could have, even though she is happy wit the way her romantic life ultimately turned out, with the man she married, and the children she bore him.

However, although Granny is controlling, her children still respect her intelligence and sense, as is reflected in her reminiscing in specific details as "She wasn't too old yet for Lydia to be driving eighty miles for advice when one of.