Furthermore, the other characters in the story make us feel sympathy for the narrator. John, a practical physician, is married to the narrator, but he treats her more like an infant. He patronises her, frequently referring to her with the diminutive tag of "little", and acts as if she were incapable of reaching her own decisions. John forbids the narrator from working on anything creative while she convalesces, evidence that he does not understand her condition. Instead, he believes in a strict, paternalistic divide between men and women; men work outside of the home, as he does, while women like Jennie, his sister, and Mary, the nanny, tend to the house. John's oppressive regularity and practicality associate him with sunlight. While the sun is out, people must conform to the rigors of the workday and must not daydream. While the more feminine moon is out, however, jobs are not as relevant and the subconscious runs wild. Only at night, then, can the narrator liberate herself from her dominating husband. This treatment of the narrator and the restriction placed on her life make the reader sympathise with her. With empathy, the reader is reminded of the feeling unjust inferiority creates, and of the frustration and strife that result from not having someone who understands one's position. John's sister, Jennie, is "a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper", who wants nothing else out of life. She supplants the narrator as a surrogate wife for John and "sees to everything" in the house while the narrator lies in bed. She symbolises the happily domesticated woman who does not find anything wrong with her domesticated prison. Jennie is a character who the narrator undoubtedly compares herself to and is under pressure from society to imitate. This makes the reader sympathise with the narrator, because she is in a place of guilt, a feeling she does not deserve. The nanny, Mary, takes care of the narrator and John's baby. With her name a possible allusion to the Virgin Mary, she is the perfect mother-surrogate for the narrator, an idealised maternal figure whose only concern is her child. Like Jennie, she also symbolises the happily domesticated woman, and, likewise, this causes the reader to sympathise with the pressure placed on the narrator to be like Mary. The woman in the wallpaper also induces sympathy for the narrator. Although the narrator eventually believes she sees many women in the yellow wallpaper, she centers on one. The woman appears trapped behind the bar-like pattern of the wallpaper; she "seemed to shake the pattern just as if she wanted to get out". She symbolises female imprisonment within the domestic sphere. Unable to break free from the room, like the narrator, the woman in the wallpaper has only the symbolic option of tending to the house, not of working in an intellectual job in the outside world. That the wallpaper is yellow associates her with the oppression of masculine sunlight and with jaundiced illness and the woman's habit of "creeping" about suggests that she must hide in the shadows. The woman in the wallpaper shows the reader the mental imprisonment of the narrator, and her desperation to break free from the patriarchal society, which induces great sympathy. As one reads of the woman shaking the bars, trapped, it expresses the reckless despair of the narrator, a feeling with which the reader sympathises.
In addition, the language used by Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes us sympathise with the narrator. Her description of the room uses alliterative words such as "repellent", "revolting" and "smouldering", "strangely", "sickly" and "sulphur". This language expresses the narrator's contempt for the room, and yet she is confined to it, day and night. The choice of words here makes the reader sympathise with the narrator. Later in the story, the author uses complex language to show the narrator's intelligence:
"The bloated curves and flourishes - a kind of 'debased Romanesque' with delirium tremens - go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity ... they connect diagonally, and the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror". This description points to the narrator's incredible mind and her high level of intellect. The idea that she is prevented from exhibiting such talent, indeed that she should not even write, generates a sad sympathy in the reader. Throughout the story, the repetition of the phrase "John says", suggests that the narrator feels inferior to her husband and that he domineers her. At one point, after describing how she gets "unreasonably angry with John sometimes" and that she holds differing opinions to his, the narrator immediately follows with language such as "caring" and "loving" to describe her husband. These examples show that the narrator feels guilty for not agreeing with all of John's instruction and opinions. This makes the reader feel sympathy at the fact that the narrator does not feel able to be herself, that she is always under pressure to follow her husband.
Finally, Gilman's narrative style leads the reader to sympathise with the main character. The story is written in the first person, in a diary-like style. This helps the reader to connect with the narrator more easily, and the fact that it is in the narrator's own words makes the reader look at her with greater sympathy. As the story develops, the narrative style becomes progressively fragmented. Much like the chaotic pattern in the wallpaper, the sentences grow choppy and confusing, grafting together disconnected one-line comments, such as:
"I quite enjoy the room, now it's bare again.
How those children did tear about here!
This bedstead is fairly gnawed!
But I must get to work."
The narrator's tone changes from naïve and depressed to paranoid and excited, and, as she grows insane, her sentences reflect the state of her mind; she regularly contradicts herself. Towards the end of the story, the narrator changes the topic often, but never fails to return to the subject of the wallpaper, thus exposing her obsession with it. The narrative style induces sympathy, as it shows the reader the deterioration process of the narrator's mind, as she is prevented from making her own choices in life, bound by the ties of a patriarchal society.
