I lie here on this great immovable bed – it is nailed down, I believe – and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure you. I start, we'll say, at the bottom, down in the corner over there where it has not been touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I WILL follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion. I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of.

–“The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman

What does the narrator’s description of the wallpaper reveal about the social context of the story?

the husband’s role as both spouse and physician in the narrator’s life

the narrator’s feeling that her life is repetitive and meaningless

the sister-in-law’s daily routine as she observes the narrator

the domestic duties of both men and women of the time