The Furnished Room

by

O. Henry

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Light Symbol Icon

Throughout “The Furnished Room,” the presence of light mirrors the young man’s hope. He arrives at the building of rental rooms “after dark,” suggesting that his hope is already at a low point after five months of seeking Eloise without success. However, upon entering the house, a “faint light from no particular source” wards off the shadows in the hallway. This represents the young man’s faint but groundless hope that this new building will hold some clue in his search for Eloise. When, by chance, such a clue reveals itself in the form of Eloise’s perfume, the young man regains a small piece of hope, which he seizes desperately: he runs to the housekeeper’s door, which “show[s] a crack of light,” to ask her about Eloise. The crack of light is as thin and fragile as the young man’s hope, and this last piece is extinguished when the housekeeper again denies Eloise’s presence in the house. Now that the young man is devoid of hope, his final act is to turn off the light in his room––and it is the lightless gas lamp which he uses to kill himself. In this way, light’s symbolic connection to hope transitions to an inverse connection between darkness and hopelessness, as the light becomes the method of the young man’s suicide.

Light Quotes in The Furnished Room

The The Furnished Room quotes below all refer to the symbol of Light. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Hope vs. Hopelessness Theme Icon
).
The Furnished Room Quotes

He ran from the haunted room downstairs and to a door that showed a crack of light. She came out to his knock. He smothered his excitement as best he could.

Related Characters: Young Man, Housekeeper
Related Symbols: Light
Page Number: 171
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Furnished Room LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Furnished Room PDF

Light Symbol Timeline in The Furnished Room

The timeline below shows where the symbol Light appears in The Furnished Room. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Furnished Room
Hope vs. Hopelessness Theme Icon
Urbanization and City Life Theme Icon
...young man follows the housekeeper up the stairs, through a hallway lit by “a faint light from no particular source,” and across a dilapidated carpet. Empty niches stand near the stairs,... (full context)
Hope vs. Hopelessness Theme Icon
Urbanization and City Life Theme Icon
Individual Stories and Memory Theme Icon
...housekeeper. He runs from “the haunted room” to a door, ajar with a crack of light through it. He knocks on the door and the housekeeper emerges. The young man asks... (full context)
Hope vs. Hopelessness Theme Icon
Individual Stories and Memory Theme Icon
...him, and he no longer has faith he will find Eloise. He stares into the light of the gas lamp. After a while, he tears the bedsheets into strips and uses... (full context)