Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Does "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" portray the five stages of death as presented by Kubbler-Ross as a theme?

This is a rather novel way of approaching this excellent
short story. Let us remember that the five stages of death as presented by Kubbler Ross
are, in order: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Whilst death is a
clear theme in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," I would question whether her
experience of death precisely fits this scheme of acknowledging and accepting our own
mortality. We can definitely see the first stage of denial in the way that Granny
Weatherall tells of the doctor at the beginning of the story and criticises her
daughter, however the stream-of-thought narrative that follows and the many flashbacks
and the way in which the past intrudes on the present makes it difficult for us to
discern the other stages in this compellling narrative. I don't see any anger or
bargaining, or even much depression concerning Granny's impending death. There is very
definitely however acceptance at the end of the story when Granny Weatherall decides,
symbolically, to give herself up to death in the face of the totality of her second
"jilting" by God:


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She stretched herself with a deep breath and blew
out the light.



This action of
blowing out the light is of course representative of Granny Weatherall's acceptance of
her own death and her own embracing of dying. The story does not really seem to be
focussed on one person's grappling with death, but is actually a comment on the nature
of death and the way that it can be compared to a "jilting" in the way that it is
actually an awesome darkness and loneliness.

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