Blog 2

Jacqueline Carlos
Option 2, "The Yellow Wallpaper:"

Charlotte Gilman skillfully employs a first person point of view in her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper." The narrator (who is also the protagonist) luridly walks us through her visit to "A colonial mansion, a hereditary, estate" (565). Her undertakings during her three month visit to the colonial home are difficult to express, and could only be exemplified from a first person point of view. Through Gilman's use of first person point of view, we see the protagonist's truth in the rawest form possible-a personal journal that, in her words, provides, "A great relief to my mind"(565).  The narrator's circumstances, and the outcome of those circumstances, can neither be described accurately as entirely good or entirely bad. This is because, through her journal, the narrator portrays the events that occur in the home as somewhat of an epiphany, while also revealing her eccentricity, thus hinting at her unreliability as a narrator. Therefore, in the end, we as the reader are left to distinguish whether she is freed from her prison or whether domestic conformity is her downfall.

            There is evidence in the text that suggests that the narrator is unreliable. Ironically, the narrator attempts to establish herself as sane and reliable in the opening paragraph, "It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John myself secure ancestral halls for the summer" (565). She purposely called herself "ordinary" in an attempt to sway our judgment. She goes on to say that she is superstitious, and imaginative, while her husband, John, is, "Practical in the extreme" (565). She also informs us that she is ill, and takes medication. John, a physician, calls what she suffers from, "Temporary nervous depression--a slight hysterical tendency" (565).  Also, the narrator makes several statements in which it sounds as though she is attempting to convince herself that John is right in his diagnosis and treatment plan. It is evident that she is attempting to convince herself due to the contradicting statements about the treatment plan, the room John chose to stay in in the house, and his refusal to let her have visitors that are, "stimulating" (567).  She feels as though she has to convince herself because she knows that John is practical, and convincing herself that he is correct would mean that she is practical as well, and not the loon that people make her out to be. This seems to be the narrator's hidden agenda.

            The reliability of the narrator fluctuates during the course of the story. As I stated, early in the story, her endeavor was to attest to her sanity, but later, she has a revelation in which she realizes that she is the woman that she was incessantly studying, and that she is oppressed by her husband and the stereotypical female role that she is forced to play out. However, this insight is short lived; as she soon ties herself up with a rope, so as to not "creep" (573) out of the window. She tells herself that she is safer behind the wallpaper, and becomes complacent, although at the price of insanity.

            In the end, I feel as though Gilman's protagonist was conveyed as a seemingly intellectual individual ensnared by society's oppressive nature toward women. This insight could only be given by the woman herself, by utilizing a first person narrative, as Gilman so expertly did.

Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing.    10th ed. Edgar V. Roberts, Robert Zweig. Glenview: Pearson, 2011. 564-74. Print.