The Jilting of Granny Weatherall story
"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" is the 16th installment of The American Short Story television anthology series produced by Learning in Focus and Sea Cliff Productions for the Public Broadcasting Service. This installment is based on the 1930 Katherine Anne Porter short story of the same name. Synopsis: Granny Weatherall is an 80 year old woman and a grandmother. As her health fails her she reminisces and becomes obsessed with the memories of a young man who had left her standing at the alter, many years ago. She becomes increasingly confused on her deathbed, and her grieving relatives find her last ramblings disturbing.
14 total · 3 choice · 7 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with getting dumped | choice | As the title alludes to, the story concerns Granny Weatherall ruminating about her former lover, George, who had left her standing at the altar many years ago. |
| coping with memories of a lost love | choice | As the title alludes to, the story concerns Granny Weatherall ruminating about her former lover, George, who had left her standing at the altar many years ago. |
| coping with romantic rejection | choice | As the title alludes to, the story concerns Granny Weatherall ruminating about her former lover, George, who had left her standing at the altar many years ago. |
| coping with a terminal illness | major | Granny Weatherall's physical health was failing her and she experienced cognitive decline. The story concerned her delirious final hours. |
| coping with aging | major | Granny Weatherall refused to accept that she was getting old and needed to stop being such a busybody. |
| coping with the death of a parent | major | The family, in particular the daughter Cornelia, gathered around Granny's would-be death bed and mourned as she was given extreme unction. |
| engaged couple | major | Old Granny Weatherall had flashbacks and ruminations of her finacé George in her days of yore. |
| facing death | major | The viewer must imagine that Granny Weatherall had an inkling about her fate while lay otherwise delirious on her deathbed. |
| mother and daughter | major | Granny Weatherall and her daughter Cornelia were at the center of the story. In the main, Cornelia struggled with watching Granny, a fiercely independent individual, as her physical health and cognitive abilities increasingly declined. |
| remembering bygone days | major | Granny Weatherall increasingly retreated into her own mental world where reminisced about times when she was young and beautiful. |