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Ted Jesus Chua

Professor Emily Banks

ENG 181: Writing About Literature

5 December 2017

The Uncanny Effect Through an Unreliable Narrator:

Examining the Illusion of Reality in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Tell-Tale Heart

Based upon the ideas of Sigmund Freud, the uncanny is prevalent in Charlotte Perkins

Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-Tale Heart, both of which

are told from the perspectives of mentally unstable narrators. This convention compels the reader

to question whether or not the events that take place within the context of the stories are realor

a product of the narrators corrupted mental states. We are not certain if there is indeed a woman

creeping behind the yellow wallpaper, nor are we sure if the madman in The Tell-Tale Heart

murdered the old man solely because of his eyes. Whatever the case may be, the unreliable

narrators in both works invoke the uncanny effect because the distinction between reality and

fiction is suddenly not clear-cut.

The use of an unreliable narrator removes the distinction between the uncanny that we

experience first-hand and the ones we read about in literature. As Sigmund Freud highlights, the

story-teller . . . can select his world of representation so that it either coincides with realities we

are familiar with or departs from them (18). But in the case of The Yellow Wallpaper and

The Tell-Tale Heart," they are narrated by deranged characters, resulting in the stories

ambiguous natures. We are unable to decipher whether they are set in the real world or a fictional

one created by the author; whichever they may fall in then rests on the readers personal

interpretation.
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From the very beginning of The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrators credibility becomes

questionable as John diagnosed her of temporary nervous depressiona slight hysterical

tendency (Gilman 2). Since the story is undoubtedly set within a patriarchal society, the

narrators freedom of expression is undermined by her husband. The speculation that Johns

diagnosis of her is not entirely accurate would not be far-fetched because he is in a position of

authority. As the story progresses, the narrator loses touch of reality and becomes obsessed with

the wallpaper and the woman behind it.

The difficulty in warranting the existence of a woman (or ghostly figure) who creeps

behind the yellow wallpaper stems from the fact no one else besides the narrator acknowledges

her presence throughout the story. Thus, we can infer that the woman may very well only exist

within the oppressed heroines mind. When the woman in question first made her appearance,

John was asleep and [the narrator] hated to waken him (Gilman 7). Despite the narrators

apparent illness, we have no choice but to rely on her testimony. Here, the uncanny through

uncertainty whether an object is living or inanimate (Freud 7) is in play, which is further

amplified by the narrator identifying herself as one with the woman behind the wallpaperthe

objectby the end of the story. And by doing so, the narrator breaks free from the patriarchy

that she has long endured.

While the heroine from the The Yellow Wallpaper has some form of resolve, albeit by

going insane, the narrators motive behind killing the old man in The Tell-Tale Heart is

ambiguous. According to B. D. Tucker, the madman [killed] his own doppelganger . . . and his

fantasy that he can actually hear the old mans heart is his own heartbeat (93). With this in

mind, the uncanny effect is achieved primarily through the double and by looking on at the

products of a madmans imagination (Freud 7). Specifically, the narrator is obsessed with the
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old mans eyes which becomes his justification for the murder, then he directly addresses the

reader to defend his deviant behavior, If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer

when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body (Poe 3). By

breaking the fourth wall, The Tell-Tale Heart transcends beyond fiction and into the realm of

reality as the narrator challenges our perception of him as a madman.

But even so, by no means do the unreliable narrators of The Tell-Tale Heart and The

Yellow Wallpaper elicit the uncanny by strictly defying the limits of fiction altogether. Rather,

they are still works of fiction that merely fabricate an illusion of reality. In fact, Sigmund Freud

emphasizes this paradox in The Uncanny: a great deal that is not uncanny in fiction would be

so if it happened in real life; and in the second place that there are many more means of creating

uncanny effects in fiction than there are in real life (18). In order for the uncanny effects in

fiction to be applicable in reality, both stories feature unreliable narrators to foster ambiguity.

When perceived within the realm of fiction, the woman behind the yellow wallpaper

would typically not be considered uncanny. However, the uncanny effect nonetheless persists

because the heroine falls into madness as a result of oppression from the patriarchal order, and

thus makes her an unreliable narratorand ultimately a prominent feminist text. The Yellow

Wallpaper succeeds in modeling a liberated woman because Gilman created a world of

common reality (Freud 18) within her writing: a male-dominated society where women are

condemned of self-identity. As in the case here, the moment that the reader is able to empathize

with the narrators demise is when feelings of the uncanny also begin to emerge.

Although the uncanny effect manifests in both Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and

Poes The Tell-Tale Heart, they push the line that separates reality from fiction through widely

different means. While the heroine of the former serves as an allegory for the perils of defining
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womens role in society, the madman of the latter seeks to defend his actions by turning directly

to the audience. Nevertheless, the unreliable nature of the narrators are brought upon by their

mental illnesses.

Works Cited

Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1919. Web.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Project Gutenburg, June 1890. Web.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. American Studies at the University of Virgina, 1843.

Web.
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Tucker, B. D. The Tell-Tale Heart and the Evil Eye. The Southern Literary Journal, vol.

13,

no. 2, 1981, pp. 9298. JSTOR.