The short story, Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is written in first person and it is from our nameless character's writings that we are introduced to her world and her life. It is through this that we see our main characters transition into a world that only she has access to. This allegory is a depiction of the women's suffrage and the beginning of the rise of feminism. The narrator changes dramatically from our first meeting while everyone else's stays very flat and unaffected. This effective tone and method Gilman uses to write this story allows the reader to see what the narrator is going through, where as if this story was told from someone else's perspective, it would not have been as real and understanding. The outside world would have written about a crazy woman who slowly goes mad for no reason. Only through her eyes can we see the true reason for her manifestation. .
The story begins when the narrator and her husband, John, have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her "temporary nervous depression."" An ailment her husband and brother has diagnosed. The narrator feels that she is very ill but is always dismissed by her husband and brother. "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?- She does not have any power or authority to do what she believes is best for her. This further shown when she speaks of her husband and her brother, who "is also of high standing,"" showing the high ranking of men in society. .
The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing, she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her. She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship.