Tone Of A Clean Well Lighted Place

How would you describe the tone of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"? Is there any irony at work in the story? What social statement might the author want his readers to consider? What is the significance of the title? Is the title effective? Why or why not?
The tone presented in the short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is subtlety juxtaposed between the nature of the main characters and the atmosphere of the setting. The primary subject of interest during the beginning of the story, the deaf old man character, carries with him a melancholy essence. When this character is first introduced he is sitting in solitude at the café. It is almost immediately mentioned, by one of the waiters, that the old deaf man “…tried to commit suicide.” (159)

The concept of nothingness is especially focused upon in this story. At first, it is uttered by one of the waiters explaining that the despair experienced by the old deaf man was in relation to “nothing.” (159) It is important to note that the word ‘nothing’ is polysemic. In this instance, the waiter meant that the man’s despair had no probable origins. He puts forward that the old man has no reason to be sad because “he has plenty of money.” (159) Equally, the author might have been trying to indirectly convey that the old man was troubled with the lack of something in his life, or maybe the fear of ceasing to exist when he dies. In further favor of this, the old deaf man’s suicide attempt might have been his way of trying to gain control over his own looming death. Later in the story, this theme is once again explored upon. The older waiter is walking alone reciting a prayer while intermittently replacing some of the words in the prayer with the word ‘nada’ meaning ‘nothing.’ This could suggest that the waiter finds no salvation in religion just as the old deaf man finds no salvation in money. Instead, he decides to cope by drinking while his mind is fumbling with “…a nothing that he knew too well.”