preview

Essay On Point Of View In The Yellow Wallpaper

Better Essays

When an author begins to write any piece of literature, one of the first aspects of that work that a writer must consider is the point of view. The point of view in a story contributes to the mood of the story, it the development of certain characters, and it can change the way that the readers respond to different plot elements. The importance of point of view in short stories shows its significance within Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In the story, the narrator is the protagonist, therefore it is being told in the first person perspective. Narrating the story is a woman that begins the story suffering from what appears to be postpartum depression and gradually becomes more mentally ill as the story progresses. Reading the story …show more content…

Yes, the protagonist in the story is narrating, but those thoughts are presented to the readers in the form of a journal. As the days go by that the wife is held in the room, she is documenting all her feelings and experiences, instead of simply thinking it in her head. This introduces the first idea about women and mental illness presented in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” At the beginning of the story, the wife wrote, “I would not say this to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind” (417). Here she is expressing how great she feels when writing her everyday thoughts and feelings. During this time, women were often looked at as less than men in reference to intelligence, capability, and overall strength. Reading this work from the perspective of a woman during that time presents an interesting thought, which is the importance of self-expression. Later on as the wife continues to get worse, she expresses again of her desire to write to ease her mind and pain, “I think sometimes that I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve me the press of ideas and rest me” (420). Had the perspective been altered in any way, the readers would not have discovered the same message because the other character is a man, and men were free to express themselves however they wished. Women were limited, which is why the point of view used developed this central

Get Access