Introduetion The Furnished Room is a short story written by O. Henry and first published in 1904, The set is in New York City on the West Side, portraying the fast-paced New York and its people, who are constantly and restlessly moving. This short story is totally upside-down from other O. Henry’s stories. Many of his stories are joyful and heart-warming, but this one ends in a tragic end. Itis a heart-rending story of a young man who is looking for his missing lover, Eloise Vashner, who pursues a theatrical career. For a five-month period, he visited countless doors, houses, rooms, and theaters, asking people whether they ever saw or knew her, but he always received negative responses. Later, he decided to stay in an apartment building owned by Mrs. Purdy. Again, like usual, he asked about Eloise Vashner, yet she lied to him that she had never encountered her. Later, in his room, he detected a strong smell that reminded him of her, Afterwards, he rummaged and found many items of the past tenant, yet no signs of her staying in the room, He went again to Mrs. Purdy asked for confirmation, however, without any remorse she lied to him. Feeling hopeless and infuriated after the vain search, he ended up committing suicide in the same rented room in which his lover actually killed herself. In the early paragraph, O. Henry explicitly stated the fact that he was always intrigued to tell millions of stories of the ‘homeless people’ of such a huge city. The title itself mocked the New York's people who restlessly overworked themselves, especially the theater people portrayed in the narrative. Later in the story, Henry states that the rooms and apartment buildings they live in are a place for them to silently pour out their sufferings and miseries. It remains as the silent witness of their death due to the unbearable pain they felt. Plot Exposition The exposition began with the narrator explaining the setting, New York’s West Side. It said that the city was restless, always moving, and a place for the nomadic people. It explained how the houses in the city must have had a thousand people living in them and a thousand stories to tell.The exposition also tells about a young man who searched a room among those houses. The young man found a room that was owned by a fat, colorless, legless woman. The narrator also explained the condition of the house, The exposition starts from paragraph one “restless, always moving, forever passing...” until paragraph eleven “... He counted out the money.” Conflict The conflict started when the young man asked the house owner about a young girl named Eloise Vashner who had a small dark spot on her face near her left eye. The woman said that she didn’t remember having that girl as her guest, Whereas, in the end, we know that the woman clearly remembered there was a girl with a small dark spot on her near the left eye that committed suicide in the young man’s room before he came. The conflict starts from paragraph twelve “ The room was all ready...” until paragraph eighteen “...was lost at the bottom tomorrow.” Rising Action The rising action started when the young man entered the room, He looked around the room and described the condition of the room, It told him thousands of stories of the people who had used the room before him. Suddenly the room filled with the smell of a mignonette flower. This smell recalled the memory of the young gitl that the young man loved. He looked around the room searching for something that had belonged to her, but he found nothing The rising action starts from paragraph nineteen “The fumished room received the young man...” until paragraph forty-three “...he found no sign.” Climax The climax started when the young man was so sure about the presence of the girl he loved in that room. But because he couldn’t find any sign of her, he asked the owner again. The owner told him about all the people who had used the room except that girl. He went back to the room again. Even though the owner didn’t mention the girl, the young man was so sure that the girl was in the room. Then, he decided to kill himself with a gaslight that was in the room, The climax starts ftom paragraph fony-four “And then he thought of the owner...” until paragraph fifty-five “..he lay down thankfully on the bed.” Falling ActionThe falling action started when Mrs, Purdy talked with Mrs. McCool. We finally know that the young girl who the young man was looking for was in that room before. Not only lived in that room, but also she committed suicide in that room just like the young man did. The falling action starts from paragraph fifty-six “It was Mrs. MeCool’s night to go...” until paragraph sixty-three or the ending “...fil up your glass again, Mrs. MeCool” Resolution There is no resolution for the young man, The young man was looking for his beloved girl. He searched from a furnished room to another furnished room, but he couldn’t find her. He finally could find her smell in a room, but couldn’t find something that belonged to her. Even though he ‘was so sure that the girl had used the room, he never really knew if it was the truth or just his feelings because the owner lied to him. So, until he committed suicide he never knew the truth that the girl also committed suicide in the same room, ‘Theme The theme of "The Furnished Room’ is that New York is a heartless city that devours people and destroys their dreams. Many people were drawn there because they thought it was possible to achieve spectacular success. Besides, we find another theme of "The Furnished Room". 1, Ephemeral Nature The young man was looking for # room to stay in, but his real purpose was to find his dearest, who had left her home. In this huge city, he was sure she would be somewhere. Moving for living is true, But moving so much that you cannot stop and smell the roses, that is a mighty gloom. The young man went door to door disapproving of the New Yorkers. We Homo Sapiens are transitory, we cannot make permanent families and keep friends. In a huge city, many people pay plenty of rent only to step into their space, take a few breaths i ide, and then step out for days. Not only the poor, overworked New Yorkers, but the entire personage 2. Love and DeterminationThe young man's love and obsession with Eloise have led him those far. He found her, but only in essence. Obsession can lead to defeat and defeat can lead to loss of hope. This theme is developed in the story by showing how desperate he is to find this woman. When he comes to terms with the fact that he won't find her, he ends up killing himself because he loses all his hope. 3, Isolation and Loneliness Although Mrs. Purdy acted selfishly and concealed important information from the young man about the room, this was a compulsion on the grounds of the survival of the fittest. The young ‘man was worried about exactly this atitude when he eame into the city. Another abstract that affirmed was the strange experience of the young man when he sat down in the chair and there were voices and scents through his id. He never felt so lonely and deaf like this so that he heard everything from the world. 4, Hopelessness Even before he decided to surrender his hope, the situation had made him depressed. The past five months eroded his dedication and made him mighty hesitant. It can be seen from the part of the story "His hope was gone. He sat looking at the yellow gaslight. Soon he walked to the bed and took the covers. He began to tear them into pieces .... Then, in the dark, he started the gas again, and he lay down thankfully on the bed.” The unnamed young man The young man, who remained unnamed throughout the story, is painted to be a devoted lover In the text, we can see that the man had been searching for five whole months and went into twelve houses. He even went to bad theaters, they were so bad he was afraid to find his lover there. We can see that he persevered on his search for Eloise Vashner, the girl he was head over heels with. Some might argue that he kept going because he loved Eloise, but can we still callobsessive behavior love? He kept searching even with no luck for months, he kept going as iffhe could not stop. Simply, he is obsessed with where Eloise is, even when there was no hope or clues. With the time frame of the old society, it is common to expect marriage within some time of a relationship. With no indication that they will soon be wedded, it is unusual for the male lead to continue his search for Eloise. Most people would not have gone fora five months search for someone who ran away from their home, leaving the love of their life without a single word, they would simply move on. That is why we can conclude that the main character is obsessed with Eloise Vashner. ‘When he began to smell the faint mignonette scent, a strong scented flower Eloise loves, the presence of the woman he loved grew bigger in his head. He began searching the room frantically for any sign of Miss Vashner. We suggest that there were no other smells or sounds in the room besides himself, it was merely an illusion. The loneliness began to creep into him and he started to hallucinate the presence of Eloise Vashner by calling out to her. When he finally could not handle his loneliness anymore, he started the gas and lay down on the bed waiting to be reunited with his lover once more, Mrs. Purdy Mrs. Purdy is an interesting character. The author described her as a fat, colorless, legless thing that had come up from a hole in the ground. We see her as a person who is hungry for money and would do anything for it. She went against the morally right choice of telling her customers the truth about the rooms in her house. She is a selfish woman who does not care about anyone other than herself, We could see that she blatantly lied when the man asked her some questions about Eloise, she doesn't even look guilty about it. She also lied about the condition of the house, kept saying that the room is good, itis in top condition and everyone wants it, but as we can see in the text that the house’s condition is not as amazing as Mrs. Purdy made it out to be. There was little to no light in the halls, the floor covering was old and ragged, and the air was so bad even plants could not survive in that environment, She hid the fact that she knew who the man was talking about yet she did not give a single hint of remorse for him and the girl Eloise VashnerDue to the fact, the author has little description for Eloise Vashner. There are two major interpretations from us about Miss Vashner. First of all, Eloise and the man had a loving relationship before she went to pursue her career as a singer in theaters. We feel like Eloise and her lover argued specifically about Eloise’s goals and aspirations for being a singer. Why did we conclude that? Well since the man was head over heels for her and wanted to find her. But seeing that Eloise suddenly went missing from her home, indicates that she ran away from her home and went to pursue her dreams and aspirations. This action painted Eloise as a strong-headed but selfish person. She is strong-willed to pursue her dreams yet selfishly went on her own without telling anyone. Then the fact that the man went to search her straight to the theaters and surrounding houses is a big clue on what they were arguing about. They might have a clash of interest about Eloise being a singer in New York City. The next interpretation is that these two never had a relationship in the first place. It might seem strange to see that we propose this idea, but the author never explicitly said that these two were in some kind of relationship, he merely said that the man is the one who loved her best. It is still subjective and is not the public’s truth, in the man’s eyes, he is the one who loves her best but since there is no other context on Eloise’s feelings towards the man, we can assume that there is a possibility that she did not feel the same way. The two of them met in their hometown and the man fell in love yet Eloise did not feel the same. The man is obsessed with her and might have caused her to feel uncomfortable and caused her to run away to New York City. Whether or not there was a definite relationship between the two, we can conclude that Eloise ‘Vashner was a brave woman. She was brave for pursuing her dreams even risking it to go to the busiest city in the states. She is a theatrical lover, she loves drama and she must have had a drama queen attitude to her. But the theater industry is tougher than what she had in mind, it took longer than expected to get big calls in theaters. The line “She would have been beautiful, as you say, except for that dark spot she had growing by her left eye.” This indicates that she was not successful due to the strict beauty standards. Feeling defeated, she took her own life in the furnished room, Mrs. McCoolShe is a side character playing the co-worker of Mrs. Purdy. The author did not spend too much time deseribing what she is like as a person. In the underground room, when Mrs. Purdy and Mrs. McCool had a truth-revealing conversation, we can see that Mrs. McCool enabled Mrs. Purdy’s problematic behaviors. Even goes as far to the point she agrees that money is their priority and would not have done a humane way of thinking. Not only does she have no remorse for Eloise but also she is acquisit Setting The narrator directly revealed where and when the scene took place. Before the story began, he mentioned the old red houses on the west side of New York City. It was said that one evening, a young man stopped at one of these big old houses. He had gone from one to another and finally stopped at the twelfth house. As soon as the young man entered the house, the narrator described that the house left a gloomy impression because it was very dark in the hall and was not well taken care of as the floor cover was ragged. Then, the young man entered the back room on the third floor. The narrator described the room as a sick, old, and dying room because there were many furnishings with ragged cover, dust, and small objects that were purposely lefi. He can also hear the other residents’ activities, the rushed-noisily trains, and the animal crying. It explained the house was a typical cheap boarding house that was not soundproof and located near a train rail. After the man’s death, there were two women both owned an old house in that area named Mrs. Purdy and Mrs. McCool met and talked in one of the underground rooms. Point of View The story used a third-person point of view, an outsider peeking into the character’s life or usually the narrator himself. He was talking as if he knew the characters’ mind and it is called omniscient. Tone Tone in a story indicates a particular feeling implied by an author's word choice and the way of the narration text. It can be joyful, serious, humorous, sad, threatening, formal, informal, pessimistic, or optimisticConsider the tone of The Furnished Room by O' Henry, Words like "dead" and "cried" set a negative or unhappy tone. The attitudes by O'Henry were serious and vivid. He is good at using paronomasia, irony, metaphor, and exaggeration to make the story full of suspension. For example in paragraph two “The people are homeless, yet they have a hundred homes. 0” Henry wants to express the setting as a rush city with busy people living in it by conveying the way the narrator describes it, like in paragraph one “Restless, always moving, forever passing like time itself...” In the narrator's expression, it was gentle but also dismal and melancholic. Since the beginning of the story we can already see the dismal tone by the way the narrator described the house, “There was little light in the halls...”, “..the plants had died long before this evening.”, “The air was bad.” O' Henry uses specific adjectives, phrases, and imagery to emphasize his description. For example in paragraph five, "He thought that she was like some fat, colorless, legless thing that had come up from a hole in the ground, hungrily hoping for something, or someone, to cat.” O! Henry describes Mrs. Purdy as a “worm” in order to draw a vivid picture of a greedy woman who always hungers for profit. The tone that ©" Henry used to portray the main character is desperate. It is shown by how the young man had been searching for the girl he loved for five months but couldn’t find her. Display in this paragraph “No. Always no. He had asked his question for five months, and the answer was always no.” 0” Henry also used imaginative, nostalgic, and melancholic tones. These are used at the time the young man imagines all the people that had used his room by looking at the sign that they left. Formal tone from this story also makes the readers want to straighten their back and stand at attention. It reminds the readers of the tone used for superior or at work. "The young man followed her up. There was litle light in the halls, He could not see .." (paragraph 7).. Atmosphere All in all, the environments and surroundings portray a bleak, void and serious atmosphere “There were cuts and holes in the chairs and in the walls. The bed was half broken. The floor cried out as if'in pain when it was walked on....” (paragraph 26). At first, the narrative gave anoutlandishly peculiar atmosphere knowing that the clues of the young man and Eloise Vashner’s relationship were limited. In addition, from Mrs. Purdy’s side we derived a mysterious and strange feeling of how she kept hiding and denying the truth of Eloise. It was slightly tense too, between Mrs, Purdy and the young man. Secondly, from the young man’s point of view, we can feel the intensely depressive, lifeless, and mournful atmosphere from him after the search was pointless. “His hope was gone. He sat looking at the yellow gaslight...” (paragraph 45) Conflict The young man was searching for the girl, her name is Elosie Vashner. When he walked around in the evening, He search for a room to stay in, And he found at the twelfth house, after that, a woman who was the owner of this house opened the door and let the young man in, and when the young man and the house owner were talking to each other, the woman said there is one room that is still empty for rent. And the young man was renting it, When he stayed in this room, he had a clue that his love Elosie Vashner had been here. And then he asks the house owner, but the house owner knows what happens to Elosie Vashner and she refuses to tell the young man the truth about his love, Conclusion The Furnished Room by O. Henry is truly a heart-wrenching short story. Our group was shocked by how the story ends. We never expected that both Eloise Vashner and the man took their lives in the exact same room and in the exact same way. It is a heartsore tragic story that will break your heart, Overall, this story is worth reading since there are endless possibilities to interpret the story and connect it with our experiences in life.