- In a Hemingway’s short story "A Clean Well-lighted Place" there are three characters, each of these characters
are reflections of the writer himself, each representing a stage in his own life. Hemingway portrays a young man, a
middle-aged man, and a very old man in this story about two waiters discussing an old man as they wait for him to
leave the terrace of a café late at night.
- At the time of this story, Hemingway was in the middle of his career at age 34. He was already a well-known
writer with young children and he was six years into his second marriage, which lasted 13 years (Schafer 1). At
this stage in life he is neither a young man nor a middle-aged man. When examining the three characters in the
story, one can easily see the parallels to his life and see parts of Hemingway in each one. The young waiter is
impatient and inconsiderate. He can be seen as the young Hemingway. A confidant, young, man with a goal,
however short term the goal may be. The older waiter is the experienced Hemingway. The one that saw people
and gave them some thought knowing that everyone has a story. The old man is the Hemingway that he feared
becoming. He is seen only through the eyes of the two waiters.
- The young waiter’s goal is to get home but the old man is the last customer and he lingers on the terrace
drinking brandy, in no hurry to leave. The two waiters are discussing why they think the old man sits on the
terrace late in the night and the young waiter comments "He’s lonely, I’m not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed
for me" (line 36). He thinks he knows why the old man sits there late at night but he couldn’t care less. Finally,
he is so impatient that he refuses to serve the old man any more brandy, instead, tells him he is finished. The
"unhurried waiter" asks why he didn’t let the old man stay and drink "what is an hour" he asks (line 54), the young
waiter says "More to me than to him" (line 55). The older waiter replies "An hour is the same" (line 56).
Hemingway doesn’t want his youthful waiter to appear as a complete jerk so he tells the reader "He did not wish to
be unjust. He was only in a hurry" (line 58). Until that point in the story one begins to dislike the young waiter for
being so inconsiderate of the old man. Hemingway tries to justify the actions of the young waiter with line 58,
hoping that the reader will excuse him rather than dislike him. Hemingway also hoped that the public would do the
same for him. His critics disliked the persona he reflected in his writing, "he helped promote his larger-than-life
reputation as a robust, belligerent American" (Schafer 1). He was beginning to mellow in his thirties so he wanted
the reader to overlook the callousness of the young waiter and just chalk it up as youthful impatience.
- The older waiter empathizes with the young man and replies "I had a wife once too" (line 37). Hemingway had
been divorced once already at this time. It’s possible he felt some anxiety about being alone after his first marriage
broke up. Hemingway did not stay unmarried for long, he remarried just two months after his divorce and
continued this pattern for the next two wives (Schafer 1). It was clear that Hemingway didn’t like being alone and
feared growing old without a wife. The younger waiter comments about the old man "A wife would be no good to
him now" (line 38) and the other waiter replies "You can’t tell. He might be better with a wife" (line 39). He knows
the young man doesn’t understand yet. He sees the old man in a different light than the young waiter does. He tells
the young waiter “you have youth, confidence, and a job,” the older waiter said. “You have everything.” He looks
at the old man and is beginning to see his future. He has nothing waiting for him and even does a toast to nothing
before heading home.
- The old man is the real mystery in the story. We know that he likes to drink, he is deaf, and he prefers to sit on
the terrace late in the night because “it was quiet and he felt the difference.” (par. 1) We know that he is alone
except for the niece who “cut him down” (line 40) when he hung himself. The older waiter comments that he is
clean and we know that he walks with dignity even when he is drunk. The reader, like the waiters, assumes that he
must be incredibly sad. The older waiter understands “nothing” (line 5) to be the reason, meaning nothing to go
home too. He knows that the old man no longer has a wife and therefore, nothing waiting for him. While the
younger waiter thinks “nothing” means, for know reason. “What did he want to kill himself for?” He then goes on
to wondering why anyone would want to stop him. “I wouldn’t want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing.”
- Of course, we know that Hemingway never made it to the age of the old man in the story. It’s possible that, like
the young waiter, he didn’t want to be an old man. And, like the older waiter, didn’t want to go home to nothing.
With three failed marriages already in his life, he may not have had much faith in his fourth marriage lasting
through his old age. Like the old man in the story, he stayed drunk most of the time, which, no doubt contributed
to his demise (Schafer 1). Whatever it was that finally drove him to take his own life, no one will ever know for
sure. Just like the old man in the story, people were left wondering and talking about “why” he did it. It’s no
accident that the old man in the story is viewed through the eyes of two younger men. Hemmingway once said,
“The writer’s job is to tell the truth,” (Schafer 2) and because he couldn’t relate to being an old, old man, he
couldn’t give him a voice in the story.
ReferencesHemingway, Ernest. "A Clean Well-lighted Place." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. J. Beaty. 7th Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1998. 445-448.
Schafer, Nancy. "Ernest Hemingway - An Overview of the Life and Works of…" EmpireZine August Edition. Http://www.spydersempire.com/empirezine/spotlight/published/august/hem1.htm. (29 Sept. 1998).
