“The Green Door” by O’Henry. Rudolf Steiner

Character Sketch

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner is the main character of the story “The Green Door” by O’Henry, one of America’s best masters of the short story. His stories always have unexpected turns and surprise ending based on pure coincidence and are full of humorous. It all is represented in this story.

Actions take place in New York at the beginning of the twentieth century and the problem which is touched upon here is the contrast of different people’s there. The author shows life of ordinary people and Rudolf is one of them. He is an immigrant from German and as others he came to the city to find a better life. He is a young handsome man who works as a piano salesman by the day time and lives in a small rented room. But in the evenings he turns into a true adventure seeker. On the one hand he is one of these ordinary people but one the other hand he is not.

The author mostly uses and indirect way of characterization. The only thing he says directly is that Rudolf is a true adventure. According to O’Henry there are two kinds of people: those who are always looking for an adventure and those who just live their life. Steiner belongs to the second one. Most of people are afraid to take risks and the author shows us this opposition in order to emphasize this side of Rudolf character and that the man is one of the few who enjoys adventures. Though it is indirectly, but we understand that he is curious about everything around him and it tempts to find anything thrilling in the ordinary world. He is risky as he is not afraid to take a risk at all and even the fact that he has been arrested, gone to strange place which might have been even dangerous and lost all his money cannot stop him. He is ready to accept any adventure and we see it when the mystery of card appears in front of him.

The situation with the girl shows us that he is also generous and kind, he helps the girl buying her food despite it might be his last money. He does understand the young lady’s problem and her helplessness because it is common at this time. Poverty is not something new in this society. The author again shows a contrast between Rudolf and the girl that they both are not originally from America, both feel lonely. That is what unites them and makes Rudolf being able to sympathize with the girl. But in spite of the same way of life, Rudolf is luckier to find a better life there. Maybe it is so because he does not seem to give up easily and his adventurous spirit contributes to this as well.

Rudolf genuinely believes that everything is built by the hand of fate. He is an exception to the majority of people who usually have a quite life. To my mind this character not only shows that there are such people who is ready to accept any adventure despite anything but he also draws our attention to the urgent problems in the society, the problems which still exist even nowadays. That is Poverty and the unfair way poor people are treated.