First Person Narration in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Edgar Allen Poe's the Black Cat

First Person Narration in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Edgar Allen Poe's the Black Cat

In "The Yellow Wallpaper" By Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Black

Cat" By Edgar Allen Poe, two short and sinister stories, 1st person

narration is used by both authors to create atmospheric tension and

unease. By using 1st person narration, a story told through the eyes

of one person present in that story, the authors can get far more

intimate and detailed in the individual characters feelings and

emotions. This makes it an invaluable style of writing if the readers

are intended to empathise with the character. It is controlled

voyeurism, peering into another's consciences and seeing the world

through their eyes. In the case of baleful stories such as these, this

technique can have a great effect on the way atmosphere and tension is

created in the story.

One advantage of using the first person is so that you can see the

logic and reasoning of the main characters, and how they deal with

their actions and consequences. For example, In "The Black Cat", Poe

uses 1st person narration to try and rationalise the actions of the

man in the story; Hearing the reasons coming straight from the mind of

the character creates a far more convincing motive than thoughts and

actions being described in the 3rd Person.

"I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the

poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from

the socket!"

The cool and logical way the character tells the story, attempting to

justify his actions and explain his situation, creates a feeling that

would not be possible to create in any other narrative. Gilman uses 1st

person narration in a very sim...

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...n the first person;

"FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen,

I neither expect nor solicit belief."

Insists the narrator, intent on telling us anyway.

The voyeur comes into play as we are captivated by this person's tale

of woe and misfortune, told in many ways. To look into lives, minds

and out through eyes of someone else but you is extremely tempting,

even when only offered in writing. Both authors exploit this, but in

different ways.

In these stories, Poe and Gilman have used The first person narrators

to great effect. These particular stories are much more suited to the

1st person than the third, because they all require reasoning and

self-justifications that a 3rd person narrator could not provide with

the same sincerity. Two very different, but equally dark stories are

both set off perfectly by their narrators.