The Yellow Wallpaper Group

Question:

studjenn
studjenn
Student
College - Sophomore

What is the point of view in "The Yellow Wallpaper"?

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Posted by studjenn on Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 11:49 PM and tagged with first person, narrator, point of view, the yellow wallpaper, unreliable.

Answers:


  1. podunc Teacher
    College - Sophomore

    eNotes Editor

    The story is told from the point of view of the unnamed protagonist in the first person. She tells the story from the confines of a closed room, where she is taking the "rest cure" for depression. As the story progresses, the woman gets more and more desperate, and her story becomes stranger and stranger. By the end, she sees "creeping women" within the intricate yellow wallpaper.

    Because the woman's perspective is distorted by her confinement and her depression, she is also what is known as an unreliable narrator.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/yellow-wallpaper/

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    Posted by podunc on Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 6:17 AM


  2. kwoo1213 Teacher
    College - Junior

    eNotes Editor

    This story is told from a first-person point of view, which makes it especially interesting.  The narrator is an unreliable one because of her mental state.  At the beginning of the story, she is submissive and complacent, accepting the treatment her husband has chosen for her.  By the end of the story, she is combative and indignant.  She says, after locking the door to the room, "I don't want to go out, and I don't want to have anybody come in, until John comes. I want to astonish him" (Enotes).

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/yellow-wallpaper/style

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    Posted by kwoo1213 on Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 8:29 AM