Narration is a literary element of a story that controls the meaning and themes perceived by the reader. The author uses this as a way of putting himself into his writing; they depict a personal reflection through the narrator. We see it in literary works, like Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," an intense short story that critics consider an autobiography. Charlotte Gilman wrote this play in 1892, around the time of her own mental breakdown, after the birth of her child. This story invites readers into the mind of an educated writer with mental illness and guides you through the records of her diary, as her mental health deteriorates and the credibility of her writing deteriorates as well. The author uses the element of the narrators' mental health to create a story with different meanings and themes for his audience. Gilman uses the role of an unreliable narrator to persuade the audience of the protagonists' husband John's perception and create a theme of entrapment. Gilman has the narrator start out as very reliable at the beginning and throughout the story he slowly transitions to an unreliable source. The story begins with the protagonist describing the house they are staying in for the summer, the description she gives seems very clear. For example when Gilman writes: “A colonial manor, a hereditary estate, I would say” (302). This description is very striking, leading the reader to believe that the narrator is a reliable source, and by using the words "I would say" she shows confidence in his statement. With such opinionated writing, the audience trusts the sanity of the protagonist, remembering the events clearly. Then she immediately describes her husband in the next exercise, as an educated man...... middle of paper ... speaking to the reader as if she knows the wife does not exist (311). The protagonist seems both disoriented and sane in this quote, the confusion is intentionally made by the author to confuse the audience. Many critics question whether this story is intended as a personal documentation of Gilman or as a reflection of the position of women in society in 1892. However due to its creation of this unreliable narrator, it creates the allusion that this story has several meanings. The narrator generates the way we see John, and the ironic theme of entrapment, from many different perspectives. The subject of the story shifts from reality to his obsession with wallpaper and consumes the narrator's tone and thoughts. The way Gilman used narration to manipulate the reader's interpretation of John and to convey the theme of entrapment makes this an effective work of literature..