Comparing The Point Of View In The Yellow Wallpaper And Young Goodman Brown

The point of view is very important when analyzing literature. It shows which character the author wants the reader to sympathize/empathize with. The point of view can be first person, second person, third person omniscient, third person limited, and third person multiple. The stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Young Goodman Brown” both have different points of view. The point of view in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is first person and in “Young Goodman Brown”, the point of view is third person limited. The point of view, if changed, can easily change the story line.

Each character has their own perception, idea, and morals to account for. What may seem appropriate for one person may seem erroneous to another. If the point of view is first person,

the reader is forced to see everything according to that one character. However, having one person as the source of all circumstances can impact the information the reader perceives. It all depends on whether or not the source is reliable or unreliable.
The point of view tends to be unreliable if the narrator has biases, experiences fallacies, and is ignorant or illiterate. The point of view is deemed reliable if they display intelligence in their actions and impartiality towards the other characters and situations.
The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is an enthusiastic writer who is highly imaginative. She is isolated from the outer world due to her post traumatic stress disorder, and she’s suffering from depression. She is confined in this house by her oppressive husband, a doctor, who says the confinement is going to “cure” her. She isn’t allowed any visitors or to express herself in her writing. The claustrophobic environment and her snowballing emotions allow her imagination to wander. It was initially mentioned her imagination has gotten the best of her before. In the beginning of the story, she mentioned she used to have nightmares of monsters as a child. Additionally, she is a writer; this explains her inventiveness. When she is neglected of expressing her fears through writing, she allows her imagination to wander and focus on her surroundings of her confinement: the wallpaper. As the days progress, the narrator becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper and less focused on her day-to-day life. Her dissociation from reality is shown when she uses a secret diary to express herself as a “relief to her mind”. From that point on, the narrator slips into her own fantasy world, losing touch with reality. Gilman shows the narrator losing sense of actuality when the narrator starts seeing a face of a woman stuck in the wallpaper. She mentions the woman was trying to “climb through.” The narrator doesn’t seem to understand the woman in the wallpaper symbolizes her own circumstance. And initially disagrees with the woman’s plans of escape, fully intending to “tie her up.”
From reading the Gilman’s biography, it was obvious Gilman advocated revised roles for women, whom, Gilman believed, should be on much more equal economic, social, and political footing with men. "The Yellow Wall-paper," according to many literary critics, is a narrative study of Gilman's own depression and "nervousness." Gilman, like the narrator of her story, sought medical help from the famous neurologist S. Weir Mitchell. Mitchell prescribed his famous "rest cure," which restricted women from anything that labored and taxed their minds (e.g., thinking, reading, and writing) and bodies. More than just a psychological study of postpartum depression, Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" offers a compelling study of Gilman's own feminism and of roles for women in the 1890s and 1910s. Because the author seems to be so connected with the narrator, it creates a bias.
Considering the narrator’s behavior regarding the wallpaper, and the bias of the Gilman towards the narrator, the point of view in this story is unreliable. Gilman seems to be writing about herself in this story just different names for the characters, and the narrator seems to slowly lose her sanity as the story progresses.
In “Young Goodman Brown,” the narrator mainly focuses on Goodman Brown, the protagonist.

He is a resident in Salem, a good Christian, and was recently married. Goodman Brown symbolizes both innocence and corruption in this story. Innocence when he wants to believe the goodness of everyone in the city, and corruption when he thinks the devil has taken over every mind of the city. Originally, the town’s people he believed were good and faithful, were all seen in the ceremony. Even Faith, his wife, whom he considered to be pure was seen at the ceremony. His doubtfulness proves he does not have pure faith in his religion. He starts questioning his own faith. This is proved when Goodman Brown goes to the forest, despite knowing what might happen there. This symbolizes the fault of human nature, tending to follow the general

crowd.
In “Young Goodman Brown,” the religious references, the Puritanical inspirations, and the association of Indians with the devil are all a result of the author’s personal thoughts and opinions. Hawthorne uses religious references when he describes the ceremony in the woods. He uses phrases with religious connotations and makes the reader question what the true meaning of the phrase is. He calls the group a “congregation” and a “worshipping assembly.” These phrases are generally related to church; however, Hawthorne uses them to relate to the devil, which is ironic. In the seventeenth century, the supernatural was a part of everyday life: people believed that Satan was present and active on earth. Puritans believed irrevocably in spirits and witches. That belief is central to the story, for Goodman Brown is a Puritan of unwavering faith.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in 1804, lived during the Salem Witch Trials.

He later changed his name to Hawthorne, because he wanted to dissociate himself from his great, great grandfather, a judge for the trials (cite). Hawthorne was ashamed of his grandfather for engaging in Puritan acts. This is presumably the reason why he wrote this short story. Hawthorne uses this short story to express his thoughts about Puritans. The point of view of “Young Goodman Brown” is third person limited omniscient, meaning the narrator knows some thoughts about some characters, but not all. To determine the narrator reliable, the views of the narrator must be objective without biases. The narrator should be able to distance himself/herself from his/her personal relations with the other characters. However, the narrator did express his/her opinion of the ceremony when describing it. For example, when it’s mentioned Goodman Brown leaves home for an “evil purpose” and a “guilty purpose,” it shows the narrator having an opinion and bias about the ceremony. From this, the reader can assume the narrator is

unreliable.
The points of view are appointed based on the message the author wants to convey. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman wanted to portray a woman being suppressed by her husband, and as previously established, Gilman wrote this story based on her own life. So naturally, she would want the story to be written in the point of view of the woman. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne wanted to portray the fallacies in Puritan belief. He made the point of view third person omniscient limited, so that the reader can make their own judgment on Puritan belief for himself/herself. Although, Hawthorne used third person and tried to remain objective, his bias was transparent. Hawthorne was born during the Salem Witch Trials, so he grew up obtaining a certain distaste for Puritan belief, so his attempts to refrain from biases were ineffective.