The caf� itself is clean and well-lighted, but the old man who sits in the shadows of the leaves foils this setting when one of the waiters remarks that, �Last week he tried to commit suicide� (297). That this reveals a level of distress in the old man is perhaps too obvious, but there is also no apparent reason for his despair. He has plenty of money, and is thought to despair about nothing (297-8), yet the waiters know that �he's drunk every night� (298).

Both waiters project many reasons for his despair onto him, which work to separate them from being near identical, nameless waiters. The younger waiter says that the old man is lonely, and that �an old man is a nasty thing� (299). The younger waiter's remarks distance him from the portrait he envisions of the old man because he is young, and has a wife to keep him company (299). He is also distinguished from the second waiter, who is older, and not said to have a wife.

The younger waiter's projections are also more defamatory toward the old man. He at one point, tells the deaf, old man, �you should have killed yourself last week� (298), and at another, says that �he has no regard for those who must work� (299). His actions toward the old man are derogatory. He spills brandy into the old man's saucer when he pours for him (298), and speaks to him �with the omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners� (299).

The older waiter acts in a far more understanding way toward the old man, and his remarks and observations are sympathetic in comparison to his coworker's. He says that the old man �stays up because he likes it� (298). He also notes to the younger waiter that the old man in their caf� is clean, and drinks without spilling even when drunk (299). When leaving the caf�, the old man is observed to walk unsteadily, but with dignity (299). These observations and sympathies distance the older waiter from the younger because they establish a difference between the purpose and motivation of each. While the younger waiter is clearly confident, with a wife and a job, and in a hurry, the older waiter's confidence and purpose are not clear.

It is the lack of purpose and meaning in the older waiter's life that creates the despair he experiences upon closing the caf� for the night. Unlike the younger waiter, he has no wife to go home to. His thoughts are circular and dark, and swell with questions of fear and dread. His ill regard for the kind of truth delivered by religious dogma is clear in his blasphemous interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, and the Hail Mary. The older waiter finds no meaning in the sense of holiness that would normally stem from the recitation of these prayers by a believer. An affirmation of meaning is absent when he offers, �Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee� (300). That he has no grasp on religious community to make sense of his life and death seems to make the older waiter deepen in despair. His isolation is enhanced by Hemingway's occlusion of sense and setting while he thinks. He is also unable to sleep until daylight, perhaps because of his ceaseless thoughts, but his arrival at a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine indicates some choice he makes to wait out the night (300). The little cup that the barman pours for him may be a cup of espresso, which can only fuel his insomnia. The older waiter's sympathetic projections of dignity onto the deaf and drunken old man are indicative of his own sense of being lost, and merely waiting for death. It is the mindset of a man who would have reason to see dignity in the character of an old man who tries to kill himself. The older waiter respects that dignity, and finds use for it in his own actions.

At the caf�, the old man's dignity is displayed in different places throughout the story. He thanks the younger waiter who pours him another brandy, even after the waiter tells him he should have killed himself last week, and slops brandy over the glass into the saucer (298). He drinks without spilling, even when drunk, and he leaves a tip for the younger waiter who is so rude to him (299). Even though he wants to die, and has sought to end his own life, he acts with dignity. He walks away unsteadily, because he is drunk, but with dignity (299). That he even comes out of his house to drink each night shows dignity because he could easily buy a bottle and drink at home, but it would not be the same. There would be no dignity in it, and holding onto a sense of dignity is all that remains for this old man who has failed even to kill himself.

There is no indication that the older waiter is suicidal, but his despairing mood is made clear. Nevertheless, he holds his head high when he finds himself at a bar, after the caf� is closed. His thoughts have been scattered and self-absorbed in his distress, but he asks politely for a little cup, and assures the barman that �the light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is unpolished� (300). The bar is not clean, like his own caf� is clean, and he notes it to the barman as a means of upholding his sense of standard. It is dignity that compels him to speak in such a way because for him, and the old man, dignity exists despite aloneness, drunkenness, deafness, or sleeplessness. The old man sits alone at the caf�deaf and drinking, but still with dignity. The older waiter is likewise separated from his coworker when he leaves the caf�, and is set distinctly apart while he approaches the bar, but arrives and orders civilly and with the dignity exhibited by the old man. Both characters endure their despair and continue to act with dignity while traversing the dark night that surrounds the caf�.

The older waiter prefers that the caf� stay open later than the younger waiter chooses to close it. It is the younger waiter who tells the old man that the caf� is closing. The older waiter admits to being �reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the caf� (300). He is separated further from the younger waiter when he proclaims that he is �of those who like to stay late at the caf� (300). The younger is not of this group, but the deaf, old man certainly is. The older waiter dislikes bars and bodegas, but asserts that, �a clean, well-lighted caf� [is] a very different thing� (300). He believes that the light is important, and that the caf� be clean. Music is prohibited from the caf� he imagines, and dignity cannot be found standing at a bar (300). It is the caf� where the older waiter works that is most like his vision of a clean and well-lighted place, and it is the older waiter's caf� that draws the old man to come and drink there each night. It is where they can both feel a sense of dignity amidst their respective inner turmoil, and why the older waiter is reluctant to close up each night; both characters need the clean order and light of the caf� to feel dignity in a world that has lost meaning for them.

The old man and the older waiter cannot be said to feel the same manner of depression, but the sympathy that is found in the older waiter's projections offers a kinship between their relative places in the story. The sense of Godlessness and lack of meaning are evident in both the old man and the older waiter, suggesting a closer relation between these two characters' moments in life. The old man does not fear for his soul when he attempts to end his life, and the older waiter does not fear for his when he recites the prayers in a blasphemous way. Religion has failed them both. Neither possesses the sense of meaning and purpose found in believers of religious dogma. Both seem to find what purpose they can in frequenting the clean and well-lit caf�s that remain open in the night. It is the younger waiter who presents a different alternative to the despair and suffering that both the old man and the older waiter exhibit. His confidence is the highest of the three characters, and it is clear that his relationship with his wife gives him some graspable meaning.

The younger waiter is not kind to the old man, and generally does not accept the statements made by the older waiter that liken him to the character of the old man. When the older waiter proclaims that he has never had confidence, the younger waiter says, �stop talking nonsense and lock up� (300). The younger waiter possesses the meaning and sense of purpose in his life that the older waiter lacks, and this points toward the importance of what he has. The younger waiter has a sense of belonging in his relationship with his wife, but any sense of community can create a feeling of belonging. Neither the older waiter, nor the old man is shown to have any bond with another that they care for. The old man has a niece, but she is said to have only cut him down from where he tried to hang himself not out of genuine care for him, but out of �fear for his soul� (298). Community and a sense of purpose are important aspects of life, and the examples of the old man who drinks alone, and the older waiter who cannot sleep before dawn are expressions of what can happen to those that have neither. A clean, well-lighted place is something entirely different when it can be enjoyed with friends.
Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. �A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.� Short Fiction: An Anthology. Eds. Rosemary Sullivan & Mark Levine. Toronto: Oxford University Pr., 2004. 297-300.