The House

The house, Le Redousse, is a symbol of humanity and human needs in contrast to wild nature, which does not provide for these in itself. When the narrator first arrives there, he remarks of the house that "it was the only human entity accessible to me, for it retained the imprint of a man—a very sober man—perhaps his whole thought, a single thought, for long years bound by daily meditation" (16).

The Bed

The bed at Le Redousse is a symbol of Cornelius' death and the pressing thought that his presence remains in the house, in either a material or ghostly form. The narrator calls it the "bed of completion, the support of a final sleep, the second body inhabited by the man who had hollowed it out through the night with his human weight and, perhaps, a bitter dream" (10).

The Hearth

The hearth...