Old Man
The elderly man is drowning his sorrows in alcohol, driven by loneliness, according to the old waiter (the old man lives alone, his wife having passed away). However, the author takes care to show that this resort to drinking is not a sign of weakness. Instead, the old man is portrayed as meticulously neat and composed in his despair, not spilling a single drop. He emerges as a heroic figure, whose quest for oblivion is shown as a reasonable, even noble pursuit in a world that can overwhelm sensitive souls. While the younger waiter appears indifferent, this man seems to feel everything deeply.

Old Waiter
In contrast to the self-centered younger waiter, the older waiter is a compassionate individual. He understands the old man's past and empathizes with him. Like the old man, the older waiter is lonely and somewhat melancholic, finding solace in a quiet public space. However, he is not as desperate as the old man. He seems to handle his loneliness with a certain detachment, recognizing that while he is alone, his suffering is not unique. The older waiter comes across as wise and resigned.

Young Waiter
Against the backdrop of the two gentle and weary older men, the young waiter's personality appears harsh and even cruel. We learn about an unspoken rule of service that dictates a café should only close when the last customer leaves voluntarily, not by a fixed closing time. However, it is very late, and the young waiter is eager to go home to bed. As a result, he serves the old man rudely, purposefully spilling drinks to make him feel unwelcome. When the two waiters discuss the inebriated old man, the younger waiter only has harsh words. He is portrayed as someone who disregards social etiquette and prioritizes his own desires over others'.

Loneliness and the quest for meaning in life are the central themes of the story, though other themes are intertwined with these two concepts. The older waiter's empathy for the elderly man who drinks alone late every night suggests a profound sense of loneliness. The older waiter instinctively understands what it might feel like to be that customer, living that customer's life. In contrast, the younger waiter, who has a wife, a home, and a job, lacks the older waiter's life perspective; he focuses solely on his own immediate desire to go home and sleep, without considering what might be troubling the patrons he ejects from the cafe night after night.

The older waiter embodies various subjects: wisdom, contemplation, empathy, and loneliness itself. Through the dialogue, Hemingway portrays the older waiter as a man desperately searching for something to hold onto in his life, for some sense of purpose. After attempting to explain why the inebriated customers need the cafe, why the illuminated establishment holds more significance than a dim, dark bar or brothel, he realizes the futility of conveying his fears to someone from a younger generation, and he becomes pensive. Hemingway describes the older waiter's thoughts as he gazes out the cafe windows:

It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada.

Through the older waiter's thoughts, comically rendered, Hemingway reveals his ironic sensibility and cleverly introduces the notion of God and religion. Located in Spain, a predominantly Catholic country, the cafe setting underscores this theme. The Lord's Prayer, which starts, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven," is familiar to anyone who has attended more than one Christian church service. Hemingway humorously challenges the meaning of religion and humanity's need to cling to a higher power to find meaning in life by replacing all religious references in the passage with the Spanish word "nada," meaning "nothing." The older waiter seems to ponder that God is nothing. Many people navigate life without questioning, never pondering the meaning of existence or the existence of God, but here, Hemingway subtly brings this question to the forefront.

The younger waiter harbors a strong disdain for old age. Commenting on one of the elderly patrons in the café, he remarks, "I wouldn't want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing." He further suggests that, at the stage of life the older patron has reached, "A wife would be no good to him now," indicating his view of a wife as merely a bed companion rather than a partner in life's larger questions. This blatant disregard for the humanity of the patrons also reflects a bias in Hemingway's portrayal. Hemingway clearly depicts the younger waiter as a self-centered individual, focused solely on his own needs and family, while the slightly older waiter appears more seasoned and keen to understand the broader world around him.

Perhaps most unsettling, yet comically sterile, is the younger waiter's contempt for the same elderly patron at the bar. The man had apparently attempted suicide the previous week, and the younger waiter complains to his older colleague that there could be no reason for the patron's despair since he "has plenty of money." This comment exposes his ignorance of human nature and a certain naivety stemming from inexperience. It suggests the younger waiter has led a very sheltered life. He dismisses the conversation about the man's suicide attempt by talking about passersby and then grumbles about needing to get to bed earlier, saying of the old patron, "You should have killed yourself last week." Hemingway injects humor into the situation by having the deaf man react to the young waiter with "A little more," while pointing to his brandy glass. Although the younger man holds his elders in low regard, they still manage to get what they want from him, rendering the waiter's complaints largely futile.