Soulless Bedroom

If it doesn't serve a purpose, then she's not going to give it any thought.

"The room was impersonal — nothing to indicate that a girl had grown up in it. There were no pictures, no mementos, none of the normal clutter of growing. Cathy had never played with dolls. The room had no Cathy imprint."

— East of Eden

Looking around someone's bedroom can tell you a lot about their personality. Even people who keep the common areas fairly neutral tend to show more of their personality in their bedroom. Sports memorabilia and trophies shows that it's an athlete; spooky decor, black drapes and band posters where all the musicians are black-clad shows that it's a goth's bedroom; kids photos and keepsakes shows it's a proud parent; and instruments, sheet music and a record collection shows it's a musician or music lover.

Most people's rooms are at least a little cluttered with mementos and pictures, but this particular person's bedroom is all clean, sterile lines. Not a single item seems to be out of place. The bedspread is a plain color and neatly made. The walls are blank. There's nothing on the bureau. The closet is filled with identical sets of neatly folded clothes in dull, inoffensive colors.

There's practically nothing in here besides the bed, lamp, and drawers. No posters on the walls, no books on the shelves (or toys or games if they're kids), no sentimental trinkets on the desk, nothing at all that doesn't serve a practical purpose. There's no papers or books lying around. There's no sense that a person lives here. It feels like a corporate hotel suite that just got cleaned.

It's not because they're poor or because their parents (if they're a child) refused to get them anything — they just don't seem to want anything to call their own. Indeed, they may be well off. In short, the unnaturally clean and sterile atmosphere of this person's room implies something is deeply wrong with them, mentally or emotionally.

In particular, children love to decorate their bedrooms with whatever they can get their hands on, so seeing a child's or teenager's bedroom so unnaturally clean can be unsettling and a cause for concern to the parents. This is their child, who they should know better than anyone else, so why do they seem like a blank slate? Did they do something wrong raising them?

That said, having a blank and empty bedroom doesn't mean it's bound to stay that way forever. Often, for this person, Character Development is visually conveyed by them starting to add decorations to the bedroom, cheering the place up.

This is Truth in Television, as some people live this way — it's particularly common among single people, who tend to only use their bedroom for sleeping and thus prefer to decorate the rooms they actually spend time in. Sub-trope of Bad Bedroom, Bad Life, Horrible Housing, and Environmental Symbolism. This kind of character may be a Creepy Child, a Blank Slate, an Empty Shell, The Soulless, The Sociopath, or (in less severe cases) The Stoic, a Workaholic, or Married to the Job. In addition, a Lonely Bachelor Pad is likely to have a bedroom like this.

This trope is not invoked in settings where everyone has a bare, soulless bedroom, due to poverty, a totalitarian dystopia, or strict rules (for example, recruits on an army base).

See also Ascetic Aesthetic, Poster-Gallery Bedroom, and The Rich Have White Stuff. Compare with Living in a Furniture Store and White Void Room, and contrast with Room Full of Crazy, Mess of Woe, and Trash of the Titans, when somebody's bedroom is a disaster area for the opposite reasons.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• My Hero Academia: Downplayed with Shoto Todoroki, whose dorm room is made completely in a traditional Japanese style with very little furniture, reflecting his icy personality. For most of his life, he's been under the thumb of his abusive father Endeavor who has been training him to become a pro-hero, so he hasn't really had the chance to express who he is yet.
  Everyone seeing Todoroki's room: A Japanese-style room!
  Kaminari: Was his made different?
  [...]
  Todoroki: [with a poker face] I worked hard.
• Naruto: Subverted Trope with Mitsuki from Boruto, being Orochimaru's lab-grown child. At first glance, his room is as sterile as you would expect it to be. However, upon closer inspection, he has a portrait of Boruto on his bedside, as well as framed pictures of his classmates.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Rei Ayanami doesn't require very much for living conditions. Her bedroom is just as emotionless as she is. The room is little more than a hospital bed, a mobile hanging from the ceiling to dry out clothing, a mini fridge whose surface has medicine and a glass of water at the ready, a small mirror on the wall, a 3-drawer dresser that can double as a desk if needed, a chair, and a fold-open closet. Because of the injuries she frequently sustains from piloting the EVA units, the most distinct features the room has are the bloodstains on the sheets and pillows, along with a box of bloody bandages next to the fridge.
• Ouran High School Host Club: In the Flashback Episode "And So Kyoya Met Him", middle school Kyoya is depicted with a pristine room, his clothing so well-compartmentalized that if anyone else tries to go through his drawers they cannot put anything back. This ends up being symbolic for Kyoya's emotions — though neatly compartmentalized so he doesn't ruminate on his lowly position as the third son of the Ootori family, once Tamaki enters Kyoya's life, it becomes harder and harder for Kyoya to keep his clothing or his emotions neatly tucked away.
• In the original TV airing of Puella Magi Madoka Magica Mami's living space was eerily empty. This was noticeably changed for the Blu-Ray version.
• Barnaby Brooks's apartment in Tiger & Bunny is very stylish looking at a glance, but it quickly becomes clear that it's very empty with little furniture. By the second season, he seems to have gotten some plants.

Comic Books

• Captain America: Towards the end of Mark Gruenwald's run, Steve has this opinion about his own room in Avengers Mansion; what with his Chronic Hero Syndrome, he feels he's never really personalized it, besides a picture of Bucky and a trunk with whatever personal possessions he has. Admittedly, Steve's in a severe funk at the time.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Starhawk's quarters on the Captain America consists of a bed (which he might not actually use) and a desk, which has nothing in it. Even Vance Astro, a man a thousand years out of time, manages to spruce up his room with some posters.

Fan Works

• Those Who Hunt... EVA?: Shinji's bedroom was like this before the Elf Hunters showed up. There are no posters or photographs on the walls, except for two under his mattress. His SDAT player and phone charger in his desk, and his clothes are the same things (neatly pressed slacks, all black, several ironed shirts, all white except for three, a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants, a hanger with two belts and two neckties on it, and a dark leather jacket). There's a cello case in the corner, a book and alarm clock by the bed, and nothing else. But don't worry, he does get better.

Films — Live-Action

• Played for Horror in Audition. The first glimpse at just how insane Asami is beneath her serene facade is when Aoyama calls her back on the guise of following up on her audition. Cut to Asami in her apartment, which is completely empty except for the phone and a huge burlap sack which suddenly begins wriggling. The contents of the sack are later revealed to be her ex-boyfriend, horribly mutilated but still alive and kept by her as a prisoner.
• Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge: Downplayed. While Marnie's room is a little childish rather than overly-clean, she feels her rooms says little about her weird personality, due to her mother's push for her to be somewhat normal and hide her magic in the mortal realm. Kal recognizes this, which draws her to him and allows him to manipulate her into opening the Strange Secret Entrance to her grandmother's room as part of his master plan to get her spellbook.
• Last Action Hero: Jack Slater's apartment is almost totally empty. Thanks to the life of an action hero cop driving away his wife, killing his son, and taking up all his time, he no longer has a life outside of work, and the apartment is little more than a place where he sleeps. The regular repair bills for shooting the mob hitmen in his closet through the door don't help.
• Last Christmas: Lampshaded when Kate visits Tom's apartment and notes that it's weirdly empty, only having basic furniture with no decorations or personal items around, and is so clean and well-kept, it's actually a bit creepy, and doesn't match Tom's lively and energetic personality at all. This turns out to be a clue that Tom has been Dead All Along; this was his apartment until about a year ago, when he was struck by a car on his way home and died. The apartment hasn't been sold yet, and the realtors keep it clean for showings.
• One Hour Photo: Seymour (brilliantly played by Robin Williams) is shown as having not just his bedroom, but his entire apartment be sterile and bare, with minimal furnishings. Except for an entire wall of photos of the family with whom he's secretly obsessed, which he obtained by making copies of their pictures when they bring their film in for development at the store where he works.
• Spectre offers a one-scene glance at James Bond's lack of a life outside of his work at MI6 when Moneypenny stops by his apartment to drop off a package for him, a place that's got no decorations at all and sparse furniture that functions more as his personal office what with the television's sole role in the story being to play a video message by Judi Dench's M after she was killed in the previous movie about another mission. Granted, he had just moved in after his last place had been sold off after being mistakenly declared dead in Skyfall, but the flip side of being a world-traveling agent with no next-of-kin is that he has no real place to call his personal home. All Moneypenny can comment upon stepping inside is a polite "I like what you've done with the place."
• Stranger Than Fiction: Harold's bedroom (and the rest of his apartment) starts out completely devoid of any kind of personal objects or decorations, looking like something out of a furniture catalog.

Literature

• The Basement: When Marvin breaks into Lisa Marchinko's house at the end of the novella, he's disturbed to see how clean and ordered but unfurnished her house is. Her bedroom is the biggest offender, containing only her clothes and nothing personal at all, to the point where he can't even see the point in trashing it. He goes downstairs and learns that she is the Serial Killer who has been sexually torturing and murdering women.
• Discworld:
  • Men at Arms: Captain Vimes' room contains a bed, a chest with a notebook, and not much else. Angua looks through the notebook and is horrified to learn that Vimes is spending half his pay on women, including 9-year-olds. She's then mortified when Carrot icily tells her those are the Watchmen's widows and orphans.
    Vimes had a room.
    More or less. It was hard to tell. Even a prisoner in a cell manages to stamp his personality on it somewhere, but Angua had never seen such an unlived-in room.
    "This is where he lives?" said Angua. "Good grief."
    "What did you expect?"
    "I don't know. Anything. Something. Not nothing."
    There was a joyless iron bedstead. The springs and mattress had sagged so that they formed a sort of mold, forcing anyone who got into it to instantly fold into a sleeping position. There was a washstand, under a broken mirror. On the stand was a razor, carefully aligned toward the Hub because Vimes shared the folk belief that this kept it sharp. There was a brown wooden chair with the cane seat broken. And a small chest at the foot of the bed.
    And that was all.
    "I mean, at least a rug," said Angua. "A picture on the wall. Something."
  • Lord Vetinari's bedroom contains only a narrow bed and some old cupboards. Though he's the ruler of the city, he's Married to the Job and modest in his habits, and he sleeps so little that it's practically just an excuse to change clothes.
• Dragaera: The Necromancer's quarters in Castle Black are little more than a closet, despite her respected position and friendship with the owner. Subverted in that they, like her, have Hidden Depths — namely, a few extra dimensions accessible only to her.
• East of Eden: When Cathy runs away from home, her parents notice that her room has no personal possessions in it, and looks like no one has ever lived there.
• Full Metal Panic!: Sōsuke Sagara's apartment is very Spartan. He has his weapons, neatly stored, his radio equipment to contact his superiors when necessary. And he has his rations, clothing, and bedding, all sorted neatly and orderly.
• The Garden of Sinners: Fitting for a character that embodies the concept of emptiness, Ryougi Shiki's apartment is a clear example of this trope. The only furniture in her room is a bed with no frame, and her phone is simply left sitting on the floor. Beyond that, the only thing of note in her apartment is her fridge, which contains nothing but bottled water, at least until she begrudgingly accepts ice cream from Mikiya. One of the first scenes we see of Shiki shows off her apartment, making it clear that the intent was to establish her character.
• Neuromancer: When Case discusses their mysterious employer Armitage with Molly, the latter tells him that Armitage's rooms are devoid of any sort of personal effects and that whenever he is not working on The Caper, Armitage just sits in his room, staring idly at the wall. This is because "Armitage" is a personality artificially constructed by the AI Wintermute and implanted into the body of a mentally-shattered special forces colonel Willis Corto, specifically for the purpose of running their heist.
• The Scholomance: Kid Hero Orion Lake had a deeply alienated childhood with no interests other than monster-hunting. When El sees his old bedroom, it's a magazine-perfect spread of unused and unopened toys with a box of extensively used weapons in the corner.
• Terra Ignota: J.E.D.D. Mason, a young man who in-universe sometimes falls into the Uncanny Valley due to his near-robotic affect, is revealed halfway through the first book to have a bedroom consisting of a mattress laid directly on the floor, a closet with six identical black shirts, and nothing else. This is acknowledged as being kind of creepy. The rest of his house is well-furnished, but purely for the comfort of guests. His housekeeper mentions that one of his favorite things to do at home is lay completely motionless doing nothing. Not sleeping, just lying down.
• Way Station: The shed where Enoch supposedly lives. The investigator correctly deduces it is a decoy, but fails to find the door into his real home.
• We Need to Talk About Kevin: Eva observes that Kevin's room looks more like a hotel room because it's so bare and soulless, lacking posters, CDs, books, or any of the typical trappings of a teenage boy's room; even his computer wallpaper is set to the default one. The one time she goes through his things, she gets excited by finding a USB drive and plugs it into her work computer to find out what secrets it might contain - only to find out that it contains a vicious computer virus that completely wrecks her work.

Live-Action TV

• 9-1-1: In the first few episodes, Bobby was living in denial about losing his family. The first time the crew went to his home, because he fell Off the Wagon and didn't show up to work, Hen said his apartment looked like no one had ever lived in it.
• Babylon 5: Ulkesh, the Vorlon ambassador, forces his human aide Lyta Alexander to live in quarters that are entirely empty except for a mattress — and the mattress was only a grudging concession to the human need for sleep.
• How I Met Your Mother: Barney's bedroom, as well as the rest of his apartment, is clean and well-furnished, but is entirely in grey, black or brown tones. It has a king-size bed with exactly one pillow, no traces of personal life, no decoration (aside from the life-sized Stormtrooper in the living room), and no food. This is deliberate, as Barney wants his apartment to be as unwelcoming as possible to discourage his dates from staying after a one-night stand.
• In the Roseanne episode "Springtime for David," David gets employment at Edelweiss Gardens, a Souvenir Land amusement park. When the Conners help him move into his on-site room, they find that it's nothing but gray bricks, glaring overhead lights, a single bed and dresser, a giant list of rules plastered on the wall, and a complete lack of windows. It's a bit of Foreshadowing hinting that Edelweiss Gardens is a creepy, cult-like business that brainwashes its employees—David included—into perpetually perky, cheerful Stepford Smilers. The whole episode—including the room set-up—is a clear Take That! against Walt Disney World (for real-life context: the Mouse House had recently purchased ABC and strong-armed all of its sitcoms into doing a Vacation Episode in Disney; not only did the Roseanne crew have to fight for the chance to go, the sterilized nature of the place clashed with the realism-based humor the show prided itself on).
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: Discovery: When Spock visits Burnham's quarters, he comments that it is very plain, lacking a personal touch, in comparison to her roommate's more vibrantly personalized half of the room. She replies that she expresses herself through her work. That sounds like something a logic-driven Vulcan would say, but when Burnham visits Spock's quarters on the Enterprise, his walls and shelves are decorated with a number of personal mementos. In later seasons, when Burnham has embraced her humanity, her room has gathered a plethora of personal mementos to remind her of her friends and family.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Downplayed for Data's quarters. He does have the odd painting on the walls, but there still aren't that many decorations, to the point where Troi described them as "Spartan". In addition, Data isn't creepy, he's just an emotionless (but morally righteous) android.
• In Supernatural this is a hint that Sam is not settling into the bunker as quickly as Dean, who is "nesting." Dean decorates his room and changes the mattress, but is dismayed that Sam has done nothing to personalize his small cell-like room. Both boys have have lived in anonymous motels most of their life and are not used to the luxury of private rooms.
• True Detective: In Season 1, Rust Cohle, befitting his reputation as a cold, calculating detective, sleeps in a bedroom that consists only of his mattress on the floor, a few meager possessions piled in one corner, and a crucifix over his bed (in spite of being an outspoken atheist). His only other decoration is a tiny round mirror on one wall that Rust stares into as a form of meditation.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer 40,000: Invoked by many of the loyalist Space Marine Chapters. Since a Space Marine is meant to be a Warrior Monk, many Chapters discourage personalizing their quarters in favor of austere, almost empty rooms. There are quite a few Chapters who don't do this, though, such as the Space Wolves and White Scars.

Video Games

• Deltarune: Kris's side of their bedroom is almost completely empty, aside from a birdcage in a toy wagon. In comparison, their brother Asriel's side is covered in trophies and stickers, and poking around it reveals many other items from his and Kris's childhood.
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: Discussed. Because of PTSD from his time as a Child Soldier, Raiden always refused to sleep next to his girlfriend Rose when he was at her place out of fear of hurting her. However, he wouldn't let her in his own bedroom, no matter how much she asked. This eventually culminated in Rose entering Raiden's room without his permission, which was devoid of anything save for a bed and a simple desk. This all comes out during a CODEC call after Raiden escapes from a torture room.
• Yandere Simulator: Ayano's bedroom doesn't have much in it besides a Stalker Shrine to Senpai. She has some manga volumes, a computer, and a video game console, but they're less for her personal enjoyment and more for teaching herself how to act like a normal person — for example, reading the horror manga will cause her to lose less sanity after committing murder while reading the romance manga will teach her to be more seductive and manipulative.

Visual Novels

• Briefly discussed in Katawa Shoujo. When Hisao visits Lilly's bedroom, his first thought is it seems pretty bare and sterile. Then he reminds himself that Lilly is completely blind and decorations would be pointless at best, troublesome obstacles at worst. As he spends some time there he finds the trope subverted as what is present says just as much about Lilly's interests as what he's used to looking for, such as braille editions of Agatha Christie books.

Web Comics

• Dumbing of Age: One character equates another's having no posters on the walls with being a Serial Killer.
• Gunnerkrigg Court: Her father's sudden reappearance upends Antimony's life, distances her from her friends, and overwhelms her to the point of magically suppressing her emotions. During this time, she's moved to a makeshift bedroom area in a huge, white, unfurnished space.
• In Muted, when Dendro and Nyra see the room Camille lived in in one of the Severin estates it's so bare bones that they say they can't feel her in it at all. It's symbolic of how closed off she was at the start of the series.

Western Animation

• Carol and the End of the World: The bedroom of Kathleen the HR lady has no tchotchkes or personal effects, save for a metronome on her nightstand which she uses for white noise. It fits her initial characterization as aggressively impersonal and professional.

Real Life

• People who knew Seung-Hui Cho before he carried out the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre said that his dorm room was almost completely devoid of decoration - in stark contrast to nearly everyone else that lived there.
• Some people on the autism spectrum do not understand the concept or "point" of room decoration, and leave their living and working spaces blank. This, to be clear, is a subversion. They (likely) have a busy inner life. They see no need to reassure themselves, and forget they need to reassure other people.

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