Early in “The Furnished Room,” O. Henry intimated that it could turn into a ghost story. Here he fulfills his promise by showing that the
room is haunted by the ghost of Eloise Vashner
. Later it will also be haunted by her lover after he commits suicide in the same way she did.
What is the irony of The Furnished Room?
Much of the irony in “The Furnished Room” is verbal irony. It
is to be seen in the contrast between the repellent appearance of the room and the whole building, on the one hand, and the humorous way the narrator describes the place, on the other.
What is the moral of The Furnished Room?
The theme of “The Furnished Room” is that
New York is a cold, heartless city that devours people and destroys their dreams
. Many people are drawn here because it is possible to achieve spectacular success, as Carrie Meeber does, for example, in Theodore Dreiser’s great novel Sister Carrie.
The suspense is broken at the end of the story when the reader is made aware of the fact that
Eloise Vashner
, or someone who looks like her, lived and unfortunately died in “the furnished room” from gas asphyxiation. The reader then understands the strange scents that the protagonist experiences in the room.
What is the rising action in The Furnished Room?
Rising Action
When the young man is resting in the furnished room,
he starts smelling a strong, sweet odor of mignonette
. He recognized the smell as belonging to Miss Vashner and starts feeling her presence in the room.
What or who is the antagonist in the story the furnished room?
Purdy
to be the antagonist, since she is the only other character in the story, except for Mrs. McCool, the woman with whom she shares a pail of beer at the very end. There is a conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. The young man is trying to get important information from her.
What is the conflict in the furnished room?
The conflict of this story is that
the landlady, Mrs. Purdy, does not want to tell the young man who comes to rent her room that a young girl committed suicide in the room shortly before he arrived
. The young man is searching fruitlessly for this woman, whose name is Eloise Vashner, who sings on the stage.
What is O Henry’s purpose in writing the furnished room?
Henry
gives the reader a grim picture of homeless life on the lower West Side of New York City
. Written in 1906, this story shares the author’s compassion for the faceless masses of New Yorkers with his reader.
What’s the setting in the story the furnished room?
The story takes place in
the lower West Side district of New York City
. A young man searching for his lover rents a furnished room near the theaters where the girl, an aspiring singer, may be working. … Convinced that she has been there, he begins to search the room for any traces she may have left behind.
Who is the main character in the furnished room?
The two central characters in ‘The Furnished Room’ are
a young and desperate man and a housekeeper named Mrs. Purdy
who is a saleswoman at heart. Consumed with finding his lost love, the young man goes through an emotional journey from the time he sets foot on the threshold of the rental, until all his hope is gone.
What is the climax of the furnished room?
There are two things that can be the climax. The first,
is the moment when Jim comes home, sees Della and sees that her hair is cut short
. and when James explains his reaction by showing her the gift that he had gotten for her combs for her long her, either of these could be the climax or the resolution.
What kind of story is the furnished room?
Set in New York City, it is
a melodramatic tale about a young man
who, after a futile search for his missing girlfriend, commits suicide in his rented room, not knowing that it is the same room in which his girlfriend had killed herself one week earlier.
Why is the setting crucial to the plot of the furnished room?
The young man who rents the room in Mrs Purdy’s home is desperate to make some type of connection with Eloise. … The setting of the story may also be important as by
describing the room that the young man rents to the reader
. Henry may be highlighting how dire the young man feels about his situation.
