The Yellow Wallpaper Lesson Plan

How do we know the narrator might be an "unreliable narrator"?

To get across the idea of an "unreliable narrator," ask students whether they believe all the stories that a three-year-old tells about what happened to them each day. Not only do they fail to catch the details and nuances that adults use to more accurately interpret reality, but their imagination often blurs into reality and influences the story.

Because this story is a first-person narrative, it is easy to recognize signs that the narrator's mental stability is wavering. Obviously, there is no woman in the wallpaper, and no normal person stares at wallpaper for hours, even someone...