Rented Room Symbol Analysis

T rented room in which the narrator grieves the end of a torrid love affair with a married woman named Louise symbolizes the nature of their relationship (and, arguably, any romantic relationship). Critically, the narrative both begins and ends in a rented room (the rented room the narrator and Louise share on a short trip to Oxford and the rented cottage the narrator lives in in Yorkshire). However, references to rented rooms recur throughout. Since Louise still married when she and the narrator get together, they’re  often forced to meet up in these secret spaces. Rented rooms are places one inhabits temporarily but does not own, and this lack of ownership is exactly what the narrator must come to terms with when they are finally able to take stock of their failed relationship with Louise.

The novel’s closing passage, which describes the narrator’s return to Yorkshire after their failed attempt to locate (and perhaps win back) Louise, deepens this symbolism. . In the aftermath of their failure, the narrator wonders whether they in fact “invented” Louise, and Gail Right (the narrator’s new companion) tells them that though they may have “tried to” invent Louise, Louise was never “[theirs] for the making.” In other words, the narrator wanted to own Louise and the story of their romance. Critically, they wanted to believe a story in which they bungled the relationship and broke Louise’s heart in order to potentially save Louise’s life. But instead of being the hero of the story, the narrator emerges as its villain. In the end, they must own the truth: that leaving Louise was a terrible, selfish mistake. In this way, the novel illustrates how relationships resemble rented rooms. Though they provide a temporary container for love and desire, a person never truly owns their lovers or their relationships.