Discuss the Relationship Between Character and Theme in “a Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
Discuss the relationship between character and theme in “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”
B-A9-0415-1
What is the most fearful emotion? That is emotionless. What is the most troubled thing? That is nothing. What will you feel after experiencing so much crazy murder and facing unreasonable death? In Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”, he shows us the loneliness, isolation, meaningless, death and futility of modern life those poor survivors of the world war one are facing through the description on the three main characters. Using his unique writing skills, Hemingway describes the character with short, plain and clean language, giving us a deep impression. Setting is one of the most important elements in “A clean, well-lighted place”. “A clean, well-lighted place” is a simple story happened mainly in a café after world war one. There are overall three main settings in the story—the café which is described as “clean” and “well—lighted”, the bar and the old waiter’s room. Other settings like the street indicate us the background the story happened.
Café is the most representative and meaningful place described in the story. The story begins with a description of the place where the old man is sitting in the café—“in the shadow the leaves of tree made against the electric light” “In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.” (Hemingway, A Clean, Well-lighted Place). It is a place formed by the shadow of leaves—the natural material but still not isolated from the artificial world, thus, the shadow is made against the electric light. It shows to us that light is unstable so it will disappear. From what the old waiter says, we can also know that the café is “a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves” (Hemingway, A
B-A9-0415-1
What is the most fearful emotion? That is emotionless. What is the most troubled thing? That is nothing. What will you feel after experiencing so much crazy murder and facing unreasonable death? In Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”, he shows us the loneliness, isolation, meaningless, death and futility of modern life those poor survivors of the world war one are facing through the description on the three main characters. Using his unique writing skills, Hemingway describes the character with short, plain and clean language, giving us a deep impression. Setting is one of the most important elements in “A clean, well-lighted place”. “A clean, well-lighted place” is a simple story happened mainly in a café after world war one. There are overall three main settings in the story—the café which is described as “clean” and “well—lighted”, the bar and the old waiter’s room. Other settings like the street indicate us the background the story happened.
Café is the most representative and meaningful place described in the story. The story begins with a description of the place where the old man is sitting in the café—“in the shadow the leaves of tree made against the electric light” “In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.” (Hemingway, A Clean, Well-lighted Place). It is a place formed by the shadow of leaves—the natural material but still not isolated from the artificial world, thus, the shadow is made against the electric light. It shows to us that light is unstable so it will disappear. From what the old waiter says, we can also know that the café is “a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves” (Hemingway, A