Friday, July 11, 2014

How many children does Granny Weatherall have? How do we know?I've heard that she has a child named George, after her first husband. But I haven't...

As the tenacious eighty-year-old Granny Weatherall lies in
her deathbed she experiences a stream of thoughts and memories, especially as she
recalls her being jilted at the altar of her marriage.  She has tried for sixty years to
be rid of her memory of George, but she cannot dispel this "smoky cloud from hell that
moved and crpt in her head...."  When she tries to rise to pull down the shades, Granny
hears someone say, "Mother, how do you feel now?" as someone places a cold cloth upon
her face.


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Hapsy?  George?  Lydia? Jimmy? No, Cornelia, and
her features were swollen and full of litttle
puddles.



It is probably this
passage which mentions Granny's children that gives rise to the opinion that Granny has
a son named George since she calls out in her mind the other children's names alongside
this one.  However, she does say the name of Hapsy, who has been dead right before
saying "George."  Perhaps, then, she merely calls to the dead before addressing the
living, although she does not mention John.


When Cornelia
tells her mother that the doctor is back, Granny's minds wanders back to Hapsy and she
imagines that she speaks to her daughter.  After Hapsy "melted from within," Cornelia
asks her mother if there is anything she can do for her.  Granny, in her mind, asks to
see George. "I want to you to find George."  This allusion to George, now, is clearly to
the man to whom she was engaged.  Thus, it seems that Granny's having called out the
name George is simply a call for her former boyfriend.

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