26 pages • 52-minute read
The Furnished Room
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Symbols & Motifs
The Furnished Room
The furnished room in the story serves as a symbol of Transience, Loneliness and Isolation. Its worn and shabby condition emphasizes that this is a place where people pass through, but never settle. Its occupants leave traces of their existence but ultimately fade away. The hair grips, buttons and other unremarkable items found by the protagonist provide evidence of those who came before him while, at the same time, remaining completely anonymous.
The room’s history is marked by a series of tragic events, connected to the hopelessness of its occupants. The furniture in the room, bearing the imprints of past tenants, speaks of the “malice and injury” inflicted by those who have tried to make a home there and felt “cheated” (Paragraph 18). The observation that “each plank in the floor owned its particular cant and shriek as from a separate and individual agony” (Paragraph 18), suggests the dilapidated space has absorbed the misery of its many inhabitants. The room is figuratively “furnished” with the loneliness and hopelessness of the Lower West Side’s transient population.
Mignonette
Mignonette, a small, sweet-smelling flower, is first introduced when the young man smells this scent in the room, reminding him of Eloise. He describes it as the “odor that she had loved and made her own” (Paragraph 21). The “strong” and “sweet” scent symbolizes Eloise and the young man’s memories of her. As soon as the protagonist detects the scent, he calls out, “What, dear?” feeling as if Eloise has “caressed him” (Paragraph 20).
Significantly, after Mrs. Purdy dashes the young man’s hope that Eloise rented the room, he notes that the “perfume of mignonette has departed” (Paragraph 33). Once he no longer smells mignonette, the sense of Eloise’s spirit evaporates, causing him to lose all hope and ultimately take his own life. The scent of mignonette is directly connected to the theme of Hope Versus Hopelessness throughout the text.
Light
Throughout the text, light is used to represent the hope of the young man as he searches for Eloise. Similarly, the lack of light signifies the loss of hope. When the protagonist arrives at Mrs. Purdy’s boarding house, it is after dark, representing his weary state after traveling the last five months. Yet, when he goes up the stairs “a faint light from no particular source mitigated the shadows of the halls” (Paragraph 7), indicating the location brings newfound hope to the young man’s quest. Later in the story, when the protagonist runs to Mrs. Purdy’s room, the door shows “a crack of light” (Paragraph 26), suggesting that the last glimmer of hope lies with the housekeeper’s recollection of whether Eloise stayed there. When she denies Eloise was a prior tenant, the young man’s hope, like the flame on a candle, is extinguished, leaving him alone in the darkness. Once the light is gone, so is his hope, ultimately leading him to take his own life.
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