The Furnished Room

“The Furnished Room” is often included in anthologies of ghost stories due to its haunting characters, gothic mood, and surprise ending. However, it is more than an atmospheric ghost story. O. Henry examines complex themes such as Transience, Loneliness and Isolation, The Cost of Urbanization, and Hope Versus Hopelessness through figurative language, foreshadowing, and irony.

Like many short stories, “The Furnished Room” begins in media res. The unnamed protagonist is looking for a room to rent, having already inquired at several lodgings. The only context the story provides for his actions is a description of the broadly transient nature of New York City life, so he seems merely another anonymous wanderer in danger of being swallowed up by the city. However, as the story progresses, details about the man’s background and behavior distinguish him: The young man is looking for Eloise, a young woman described as a “fair girl […] with reddish, gold hair and a dark mole near her left eyebrow” (Paragraph 12), who disappeared from her home and came to New York City to be a singer. In fact, he has been searching for her for the past five months, “questioning managers, agents, school and choruses” (Paragraph 14), demonstrating his dedication and love for her. Such details work against the deindividuation of urban life. The man’s general circumstances—loneliness, lack of a permanent dwelling, etc.—may be common in the city. Still, the story invites readers to sympathize with his particular griefs and, through him, the particular griefs of all the city’s “transients.”

When the young man enters the boarding house, the detailed descriptions of its condition expose The Cost of Urbanization. Mrs. Purdy’s emphasis on the respectability of her boarding house is juxtaposed with depictions of squalor and decay. Significantly, O. Henry utilizes imagery more commonly associated with descriptions of haunted houses in the Gothic genre. For example, the narrator personifies the house, describing its breath as “a cold, musty effluvium as from underground vaults” (Paragraph 19). The infernal imagery of hell is also evoked in the suggestion that the “vacant niches in the wall” may have once held saints’ statues, now “dragged […] down to the unholy depths of some furnished pit below” (Paragraph 7). These images underline the miserable living conditions of the transient urban population, and the sinister tone foreshadows the later suggestion that Eloise’s ghost may haunt the property. On a wider level, the author suggests that the house is haunted by the hopelessness of the many nameless, faceless residents who have lived there.

The extensive description of the protagonist’s “furnished room” further highlights The Cost of Urbanization. The young man can hear laughing, crying, music, and slammed doors from the other rooms, as well as noise from the outside city; yet he is alone and friendless. Speaking to the theme of Transience, Loneliness and Isolation, his experience underlines the paradox of being in close proximity to other people without meaningful human connection. The threadbare room symbolizes the internal weariness of the young man and the other inhabitants of the crowded Lower West Side. Just like the “polychromatic rug like some brilliant-flowered, rectangular, tropical islet lay surrounded by a billowy sea of soiled matting” (Paragraph 17), the diverse immigrant population with their unique backgrounds become overwhelmed with the drudgery of existence in the city.

The furnishings and discarded items in the room also reveal much about the prior tenants, again highlighting the Transience, Loneliness, and Isolation experienced by the population. The “odd buttons, a theater program, a pawnbroker’s card, two lost marshmallows, [and] a book on the divination of dreams” are “ignoble small records” of the previous inhabitants (Paragraph 22). These items are both anonymous and deeply personal. While meaning nothing to the protagonist, they are the only traces of the former occupants’ existence. The room also bears the marks of previous residents’ hopelessness in its “chipped and bruised” furniture where they have “wreaked […] their passions” (Paragraph 18).

The limited expositional details provided create mystery and suspense in the narrative. It is unclear what happened to Eloise or whether the young man will find her. The unexplained presence of Eloise’s perfume, mignonette, deepens this mystery, adding an element of the supernatural. The “rich odor” takes on human characteristics as it clings to the young man with “outstretched arms” (Paragraph 23), giving him hope that Eloise has been there. However, his mood quickly turns to hopelessness when Mrs. Purdy’s list of former tenants does not include Eloise. The protagonist’s death by suicide is the ultimate expression of his loneliness and despair. His extreme decision takes place in the span of one paragraph, marking the story’s climax. In the falling action and resolution, O. Henry presents a final plot twist. Mrs. Purdy’s revelation that, a week earlier, Eloise rented the room occupied by the protagonist and died in the same manner invests the story with situational irony. Meanwhile, the author creates dramatic irony through the reader’s access to information of which the characters are unaware. While the young man died without knowing of Eloise’s fate in the same room, Mrs. Purdy is likewise oblivious to the fact that her new lodger has just died under the same circumstances. The story’s ironic twist underscores the theme of the transient and unpredictable nature of life.