Exploring Isolation in Hemingway's and Hawthorne's Short Stories

Theme of Isolation in “Young Goodman Brown” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
We might find ourselves in a room full of admirable people, with wonderful lighting, a wife and home, feeling as if we’re nothing but a wasted bit of human flesh. Regardless of what is going on around us, the way we feel on the inside will ultimately be determined by our own self. Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” are prime precedents for this feeling of isolation when one seems to have everything he could ever need to sense comfort. In both stories, these men seem to have enough to keep a smile on their faces whether that’s money, a family, a clean café in which to enjoy a drink, or a bed to come

home to every night. Though, through the use of symbolism and setting, Hemingway and Hawthorne show that even in the happiest of places, it is possible to feel isolated from everything and everyone.
In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” the Brandy that the drunk old-man is guzzling symbolizes the common theme of isolation. Most people drink to fill a void that is incapable of literally being filled. Therefore, he is assumed to be trying not to feel so abandoned given that he is old, alone, in a nice café, without any company. With that said, Hemingway uses the setting of a beautiful modern-day café with a plethora of lighting in the middle of a dark and lonely night to support the idea that this old-man is trying to find the Rose in the haystack. Even the loneliest, most despairing of men can find some kind of comfort, as Shmoop states referring to the drunk old-man in “The Café,” (Shmoop). The way these literary devices are used concludes that we often grab for anything readily available to cure our isolation. In example, the older waiter from the café says, “It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order.”
The theme of isolation is also depicted through the use of symbolism and setting in “Young Goodman Brown.” Symbols such as the congregation and Faith represent his isolation in one way or another.

However, with this story, the literary devices take a more ironic route to supporting this theme than Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” For instance, a church is supposed to show unity and love; whereas in this town, it shows deceit. Brown feels isolated from the church due to what he witnesses at the devil’s communion. He doesn’t want anything to do with them because he believes they are all phony, referring to them as “chaste dames and dewy virgins.” Brown’s “innocent” wife Faith, on the other hand, is supposed to be a symbol of love and trust for Brown. Although, he can’t even look her into the eye knowing she deceived him along with the congregation. In her response to “Young Goodman Brown,” Shear Walter states that his departure from his wife is not only a symbolic loss of faith, but it’s also his leaving behind "conventional belief," (Walter). Along with the disappointment he has with the townspeople and his wife, the setting of the forest shows that he is in fact isolated. Something about creepy Willow trees and dark nights down long trails says that one is alone in all senses. Hawthorne shows in this story that aside from who one is surrounded by, the emotions he experiences is decided through only his

self.
In essence, the symbols and settings in both Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” prove that isolation is more than just being literally abandoned. It is impossible to know who is alone and who isn’t just by observation. We will never know what another person is really feeling on the inside regardless of what we witness. Everyone uses different mechanisms to cope with desolation whether that’s smiling, or consuming hard liquor every night at a local bar.