How is the setting of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" related to its theme?

This
story is set in a cafe late at nightor,
more specifically, at a little after two o'clock in the
morning. An old man
sits at a table in the otherwise empty terrace of the cafe "in the
shadow the
leaves of the tree [make] against the electric light." For the old man who is

alone and suicidal, the cafe terrace represents (as the title of the story suggests) a
clean,
well-lighted, and pleasant place to sit and drink.

The predominant themes of
the story are loneliness and despair, as
well as the absence of meaning and purpose which often
goes hand-in-hand with
them. The old man who sits at the table is lonely andas indicated by his

reported suicide attemptsdespairing: without hope. The older of the two waiters is
likewise
lonely and (although not to the same degree) also seemingly without
much hope.

The setting of the cafe reflects the loneliness
of these characters in part because,
except for the old man and the waiters,
it is empty. This impression of emptiness and loneliness
is also compounded
by the time of day. Two o'clock in the morning is a very quiet, lonely time.

Everybody else has gone home, and nobody else (except for the passing soldier and the
girl) is
awake yet.

The light in the cafe is also an
important aspect of the setting
and is described often throughout the story.
The light symbolizes a source of solace. Indeed,
the older of the two waiters
says that he likes to stay late at the cafe to be with "all
those who need a
light for the night." The light is a the solace that the lonely characters

rely on to subdue their despair.