Seeking light in the darkness: a reflection on Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” a short story by Ernest Hemingway

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is short story by Ernest Hemingway that was written sometime in 1933.

The story is set somewhere in Spain. It’s late at night and two waiters (an older and a younger one) in an unnamed café are attending to the only customer left, a deaf old man.

The younger waiter is impatient to go home to his wife, and complains to his colleague that he never manages to get into bed before 3 a.m.. When the customer orders a brandy, the younger waiter gets annoyed and overfills the old man’s glass on purpose.

The older waiter tells the younger waiter that the old man had recently tried to hang himself but was rescued by his niece in the nick of time.
Still, the younger waiter shows little pity, makes nasty ageist comments, and even wishes the old man had succeeded in killing himself.

After the old man asks for another brandy, the younger waiter refuses to serve him anything else and tells him the café is closed. The old man leaves the café, and teeters down the street evidently drunk.

The older waiter is more empathetic towards the old man and disapproves of the younger waiter’s attitude. Like the deaf old man, the old waiter also prefers to stay late at the café, and keeps the café running for as late as possible to ensure that it’s open for whoever needs it.

The younger man interjects, saying that there are bodegas for that purpose, but the older man points out the importance of a clean, pleasant and well-lighted café. Bodegas, according to the older waiter, are not clean, are noisy and customers have to stand – they are not an inviting space.

Moreover, the younger waiter doesn’t seem to understand that even people with money can be lonely. He is young and has confidence and so doesn’t understand the older men’s existential problems.

With no family to come to at the end of the day, the older waiter also feels lonely, and it is this loneliness that makes him aware of the meaninglessness of his life. The older waiter further ponders: how can one alone fight off this nothingness? His lack of confidence thwarts any attempt to actively push the darkness out of his life.

Not even faith helps. This is most obvious when he says, “It was all a nothing and man was a nothing too” and changes the beginning of the popular prayer “Our Father who art in heaven” with “Our nada who art in nada” (nada means nothing in Spanish).

Both the older waiter and the old deaf man are attempting to deal with their own perceived empty life. One strategy to cope with the despair is by seating alone in a clean, well-lighted and pleasant café and drinking until drunk.

The cleanliness and light metaphorically representing the human’s attempt to keep disorder and darkness at bay. The older waiter once says: “I am one of those who like to stay late at the café […] With all those who need a light for the night”. I interpret “a light for the night” as shining some light in an otherwise dark inner world.

Of course, the clean, well-lighted café is only but a temporary reprieve since all cafés eventually close.

The story ends with the older waiter going home after a short stop at a bodega. He mentions that he is probably only suffering from insomnia and that many must have it. Perhaps this is another coping mechanism to alleviate his suffering, blaming the emptiness he’s feeling to a lack of sleep (even though it’s likely the other way round i.e., his depression is disrupting his sleep).