Dr. Navarro

ENG 102

In-Class Work: “The Yellow Wallpaper” 

Point of View

John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.

John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.

John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.

You see he does not believe I am sick!

And what can one do?

If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?

My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Read the excerpted passage and answer the following questions: 

Part 1  

Answer by yourself (to be handed in):

1. What type of point of view does Gilman utilize?
2. Whose point of view is this scene told from?
3. Why do you think the author chooses this point of view?

Part 2: POV Exercise

Choose another character in the story and re-write the scene above from that point of view (1. 1st Person Central; 2. 1st Person Peripheral; 3. Third person point of view, limited; 4. Third person point of view, omniscient). You can use John, the narrator’s brother, sister-in-law, etc. This can be about 250 words. After you finish your creative rewriting, answer the following questions:

1. How does the shift in point of view change our understanding of the passage?
2. What contribution does point of view make to the meaning of the story?