Who Is The Protagonist In The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one of the earlier feminist pieces regarding women’s health in the 19th century. Set in a large manor left untenanted. The potentially unnamed first person narrator struggles with being isolated and restrained from everyday life. The protagonist for the large part is left in an old children’s room, with the bed chained to the floor, bars in the window, and vexing yellow wallpaper. There she rests, and waits to get better. As her mental instability worsens, the only remaining option is to destroy what has put her there, the systemic issues of gender roles in society.

The unnamed protagonist introduces the readers to John through a combination of authorial and editorial processes. “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.”***** This process immediately tilts …show more content…
Having a well educated, unnamed, and female protagonist as the narrator proposes questions. If the narrator would have been John, not only would the present narrator only become a secondary character she would seldom be in scenes. While third person may give readers insight into the thoughts and actions to secondary characters the theme of a woman finding her name without fitting into societies roles would be …show more content…
The woman that was doing the motherly, worldly duty, was named but the woman struggling to find an identity outside of the realm of motherhood was left nameless. Charlotte Perkins Gilman giving the Yellow Wallpaper to the doctor, not only proves her central point that the male gaze and opinion holds social weight also undermines it. For giving the reigns over to the male, it validates society. It simply becomes one of the contradictions in the piece, a necessary evil. A woman trapped in the walls, a beautiful greenhouse with broken windows, or a large abandoned