Spiritual Despair and Isolation

Both “Eleanor Rigby” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” demonstrate a feeling of

isolation in the modern age. They both show the depression and loneliness felt when people

are isolated from one another. But, more specifically these pieces of literature demonstrate

an alienation from God and the despair which follows. Through religious references and the

repetition of the idea of loneliness both pieces of literature examine the problem of spiritual

despair and a lack of faith even though they differ in structure and degrees to which the

characters are isolated.

Spiritual despair and a lack of faith in God is shown in both pieces of literature

through religious references which are directly associated with a feeling of nothingness and

isolation. In Hemingway’s story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, an old man tries to commit

suicide out of despair. The attempted act of suicide not only demonstrates his lack of self

worth ...