First Person Narration in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpap

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... ...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.