Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Term Paper

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Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Specifically it will discuss the effect that point-of-view has on the story. The narrator in this story slowly descends into madness as the story continues, and the first-person point-of-view helps the reader truly feel how the woman feels, and why she goes slowly mad in her own home.

The author chose first-person for this story to graphically illustrate how women's lives were ruled over by others in the 19th century. This narrator has no say in her own life -- her husband makes all the choices for her, including who she sees, what she does, and how she recovers from her "illness," which was really a bout with madness. She has no purpose in life, and no way to escape except through losing her mind. This first-person view graphically affects the story, because it is as if the reader is right there with the narrator, watching her painful life and her reaction to it. It makes the story more real and engaging, and it makes it seem truer and believable, as well.

In this story, the narrator is certainly a participant in the story, and she makes that quite clear from the very beginning.

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To begin, she seems sane and rational enough. She is sane enough to realize her husband is part of her problem. She says, "John is a physician, and perhaps -- (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) -- perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick!" (Gilman). As the story progresses, and John keeps a tight rein on her, her condition quickly deteriorates, and the use of the first-person makes this quite clear. The narrator begins to see and hear things around her; things that are not really there, like the old woman who "creeps" out of the wallpaper in the bedroom. She says, "There are new shoots on the fungus, and new shades of yellow all over it. I cannot keep count of them, though I have tried conscientiously" (Gilman). She continues, "Then in the very bright….....

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"Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman" (2009, September 09) Retrieved June 26, 2025, from
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