Narration is a literary element of a story that controls the meaning and themes perceived by the reader. The author uses it as a way to insert himself into his own writing; they describe a personal reflection through the narrator. We see it in literary pieces, such as Charlotte Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper,” an intense short story that critics say is an autobiography. Charlotte Gilman wrote this piece in 1892, during her personal mental depression, after the birth of her son. This story invites readers into the mind of an educated writer who is mentally ill and walks you through her diary entries as her mental health worsens and so does the credibility of her writing. The author uses the element of the narrators' mental health to create a story with different meanings and themes for her audience. Gilman uses the role of an unreliable narrator to persuade the audience's perception of the protagonists' husband, John, and create a theme of entrapment. Gilman makes the narrator start out as very reliable in the beginning and over the course of the story slowly turn into an unreliable source. The story begins with the protagonist describing the house where they are staying for the summer, the representation she gives of it seems very clear. For example when Gilman writes: “A colonial villa, an inherited property, I would say” (302). This description comes across as very vivid, leading the reader to believe that the narrator is a reliable source, and by using the words “I would say” he shows confidence in his statement. With such opinionated writing the audience trusts the sanity of the protagonist, through the clear re-enactment of events. She then immediately describes her husband in the next exercise, as a well-mannered man… mid-paper… who speaks to the reader as if he knows the woman does not exist (311). The protagonist seems both disoriented and sane in this quote, the confusion is intentionally done by the author to confuse the audience. Many critics question whether this story is intended as a personal documentation about Gilman or 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 many meanings. The narrator generates how we see John, and the ironic theme of entrapment, through many different angles. The subject of the story changes 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 piece of literature effective..