Any work of art begins with an image - the author’s view of a certain phenomenon, situation, person through the prism of aesthetic and emotional perception. He creates an arena in which the action unfolds, the characters collide, confronts the objective subjective. And the usual description of the room becomes part of the atmosphere, provides new artistic details.
“A room is like a room - a bed, a wardrobe, a table,” even the mean words of a character who speaks of a room can convey his mood. For example, disappointment in what he saw or the ability to be satisfied with minimal amenities.
It does not matter whether the author uses a long or short description of the room. It should be appropriate: to develop the plot, to reveal the inner world of the hero, to project the author’s attitude to what is happening.
The description of the room can become a reflection of life, a projection of the internal state of the character. Raskolnikov’s tiny room becomes the image of the whole city and the life of a small man who is afraid to lift his head high and hit the ceiling of circumstances. Yellow wallpaper on the walls is associated with fatigue. A large and clumsy sofa, occupying half the room, creates a feeling of vain idleness (the northern capital) amidst poverty. Dostoevsky shows how the oppressive atmosphere of the “box” squeezes the character’s consciousness and makes it look for a way out.
The room description is used to characterize the characters. Bolkonsky’s office, filled with ordered disorder, shows the owner’s life full of meaning and activity, and respects Tolstoy’s intellectual work.
The description of the room with an easy presentation by the author becomes the personification of time, flickering like an oven spark in the room from Bulgakov’s novel “White Guard”. The clock acts as a bridge between the present and the past, arrange a roll call in different voices from the dining room and mother’s bedroom. Smells, colors, sounds come to life, as if in “delirium of scarlet fever”, and fill the rooms of the house.
Description of the room in an artistic style is by no means an insect frozen in amber. Letting facts, fantasy, and experience go free, the author himself finds new nuances in the creative process, corrects the initial view, and makes sudden discoveries. Presenting the reader a verbal interpretation of his own perception, the writer suggests becoming an interpreter of images. Options are quite remote from the "original". The critical look of the writer of the times of Turgenev, who ironically looked at the rich and decorated room of Kirsanov, will be greeted with an understanding by the fans of the practical style. However, the author wanted to show that the cabinet should be working, and a modern person will see a desire to surround himself with luxury in a showcase.
Therefore, the word "interior" in fiction really appears in the meaning of the inner world, through which the author communicates with the worlds of readers.