The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze two short stories, "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield and "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. Specifically it will compare and contrast the two short stories. Both of these stories feature lonely, pathetic characters that have no friends or family to help make their lives a little less forlorn. They are both very sad people who spend their lives alone, but more than that, they both face ridicule from others, which indicates how society views the aged and the lonely.
             Both of these characters try to escape their loneliness by going to public places. Miss Brill goes to a public band concert, but never interacts with anyone else, even though she goes every Sunday. The old man goes to a "clean, well-lighted" café to drink brandy so he will not be alone, as well. People around them, because of their age and their actions, ridicule both of them and both of them are hurt by this ridicule. The old man has tried to kill himself because his life is so empty, and Miss Brill goes home to her tiny apartment and cries because she is so wounded by what the young people said. They are lonely, sad characters, and their lives seem pointless somehow.
             Both these characters understand their lives are meaningless, too. Hemingway writes, "Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread, it was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too" (Hemingway). Miss Brill thinks about her empty existence and realizes that no one would miss her if she was gone, and that is a terrible realization to have. Her life is empty because she has not opened herself up to people. That is clear by her action at the concert. She goes every week, and certainly must see at least some of the same people every week, and yet she makes no effort to make...