A comparison of A Clean Well—Lighted Place and The Romantic

董鶴

When the night falls， the old man of A Clean Well-Lighted Place is still sitting in the café rapped on his saucer with his glass. When the night falls， Isabel of the Romantic is again sitting at the bar as if she is waiting for someone. If someone ask why they refuse to go home at midnights， they may tell you because they want to escape from loneliness. Every time I read these two stories， I can notice the feeling of loneliness pervading the whole stories. Therefore， the paper will firstly be concerned with the same theme of the two stories—loneliness. This will be followed by a further analysis of the reasons for their loneliness from autobiography criticism perspective. Then the paper will discuss the settings of these two stories. Lastly， the writing styles will be analyzed.

Loneliness

Just as the Venn diagram shows， the overlap is the same theme of the two stories—loneliness. Although the old man and Isabel are different in ages， dispositions， occupations etc.， they share the same feeling—loneliness. Both of them have few relatives or friends and they extremely desire for accompanies of others. Maybe there are two reasons to explain why the old man feel lonely. Firstly， the old man has no wife and he only has a niece to look after him， an obviously loneliness. The second reason is because he is a deaf person. So he is completely cut off from the outside world. As for Isabel， to some extent， her loneliness result from her isolation from the outside world too because she spent five years to care for her mother almost without any social life. To analyze the theme in a broadly sense， their loneliness comes from the conflicts between individual and society. The two main characters are alienated from the society， therefore， they feel lonely. Even though they dont have exactly the same reasons， they suffer from the same feeling—loneliness.

Autobiography criticism

According to Goethe （2010）， “every author in some way portrays himself in his works” （as cited in Doing Literary Criticism： Helping Students Engage with Challenging Texts by Tim Gillespie， 2010， P.22）. Thus， the best way to approach a work of literature is to consider it in the light of the authors life. Hemingway was a representative of the Lost Generation， which was the generation that came of age during World War I. Mellow （2007） conceptualized as follows： The generation was “lost” in the sense that the writers considered themselves lost because their inherited values could not operate in the postwar world and they felt spiritually alienated from a country they considered hopelessly provincial and emotionally barren. （P. 22） According to the definition， the “Lost Generation” includes two main thoughts--the feeling of alienation and nothingness of life. Given these facts， Hemingway and Highsmith held the same opinion that life is nothingness.

Writing Styles

Hemingway just told readers there were three main characters， the old man， the old waiter and the young waiter， but even not mention their names， ages， appearances etc. It reflects his writing style—minimalism. In contrast， Highsmith had a very specific description about the appearance of Isabel and her flat. She also told readers the clothing of Isabel. Some of descriptive words even seems to be cliché， but it is because Heighsmith wanted to described the trauma of Isabel by this indirectly way. Specifically， Heighsmiths detailed descriptions of Isabel， such as she missed her father but not mention her mother and much of the narrative about Isabel moves the furniture around her flat ， implicate that Isabels difficult relationship with her mother.

Conclusion

By way of conclusion， even though the two stories were written in different years and by different writers， the Romantic and A Clean Well-Lighted Place shared something in common. Both of the stories have the same theme—loneliness. This is probably because the two writers felt loneliness and they wanted to express their loneliness and desperate by the two stories. Reviewing their life experiences， either Hemingway or Heighsmith lived an isolated life because they could not be assimilated by the current society. Closing the two stories， I have a better understanding of the two authors.