Question

In at least 150 words, describe what effect is achieved by narrating "The Yellow Wallpaper" in first-person point of view. How would this effect be different were it narrated in another point of view?

Answer 1

"The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story narrated from the point of view of a woman suffering a nervous condition. By resorting to a first-person narrative, the reader can only know the woman's thoughts and feelings. In other words, the reader can only know her side of the story. In that sense, the reader feels as isolated as the woman feels in the room. The first-person perspective makes possible for the reader to go along for the ride into madness as she becomes more dissociated from her day-to-day life; however, this choice of perspective is also what allows the reader to be sympathetic towards the woman, an effect that would not have been achieved without the first-person point of view. If the story had been narrated by her husband, who makes all the decisions for her over the course of the story and never takes her seriously, the reader would not have taken her seriously either. The choice of first-person narrator is vital for the reader to understand the nature of the woman's suffering and to empathize. On the other hand, for the woman's husband, John, the activity of writing is another symptom of the narrator’s nervousness. In that way, if the story had been narrated from his point of view or Jenny's, the reader would not have sympathized with the woman and would have considered her to be crazy as they do.

Answer 2

Hello,

The Yellow Wallpaper has the main character a lady protagonist, and it's focused on her perceptions and feelings, that are explained in the whole story.

The reader can understand that the author is telling stories that were lived by him. On the other part, we have that the likes and dislikes of what she sees and shares in the story, could be the author’s own view point and that comes through the character. The reader gets the feeling that the character felt the person she sees within the wallpaper was partly she herself based on certain incidents she had experienced as a child. If we think about the story being told by a third person and not the character herself, we can add more insights on certain situations, such as in the way the wallpaper is perceived by the character. In addition, the story could not communicate that effectively, in a right way, to the reader the emotions felt by the character during the development of the story.