Review of The Furnished Room

 The Story ‘The Furnished Rooms’ showcases the masterful story telling of O Henry, renowned for his wit and surprising plot twists. It is filled with irony and heart- warming moments.  It portrays the socio-economic status and deep insight into mentality of the house keepers. The story opens with a note that a young man prowling among crumbling red mansions in the Lower West side of the New York City is on hunt for a room. Actually, he had a secret motive. He is searching for his lost love Eloise, who is missing since last five months.

The young man sits in his room, which is decrepit, musty and full of moldy furniture, listening to the many sounds of the city, until the smell of mignonette (an herb used for perfume) breaks through the room’s rotting odor. The young man cries out as if the smell has spoken to him, since mignonette is Eloise’s favorite scent. Grasping for hope, the young man asks the housekeeper if she has seen a young woman named Eloise Vashner, who left home several months ago to pursue a career in show business. The housekeeper lists many people, but deliberately hides mention of Eloise. The defeated young man returns to his room, where the smell of mignonette is gone. With his last hope gone, he uses the furnished room’s gas lamp to gas himself to death.

 Downstairs, the housekeeper discusses the young man with her friend Mrs. McCool, revealing that Eloise had stayed in the young man’s room only last week. The housekeeper did not tell the young man because Eloise committed suicide in the furnished room, and the housekeeper worried that the news would have negative impact on her business.

Everybody in this world has secret motives.

 

Rajni Chhabra

Poetess, translator & reviewer