When one walks down an empty city street that is poorly lit, does not one feel lonely?  Although people may walk past, they are not known to you.  You may be surrounded by a crowd of people, and still be lonely.  Edward Hopper captures this loneliness in his painting Nighthawks.  The painting depicts an empty city street with a diner.  In the diner are four people while outside in the city there are none, which is unusual for a city.  The buildings of the city are revealed in the eerie glow of the diner’s lights, which seems to wash out the colors of the people inside.  The people themselves seem very isolated.  Hopper uses these details in his painting to display the theme of the painting- loneliness.

Hopper uses architecture in his painting to accentuate the painting’s theme.  The way the outside buildings and diner are painted imbues the painting with a gloomy, forlorn atmosphere.  The light the diner casts on the walls reveals the walls to be very stark, which gives the viewer the impression that the streets of the metropolis are desolate.  The diner seems to be isolated from the outside, with no visible exits.  Most of the diner is a huge glass window, with no doors.  The only door in the room is in one wall, and neither a doorknob nor hinges are apparent.  The diner appears to be entirely separate from the rest of the painting, and through this isolation from the outside comes a pervading sense of loneliness.

The lighting and compositional method used also helps underscore Nighthawks’ theme.  Hopper uses the sharp contrast from the acheronian lighting in the streets to the bright, fluorescent lighting of the diner in conjunction with a certain compositional style that lends a feel of lonely seclusion to the artwork.  As the viewer’s eye travels from left to right across the painting, all that is seen is caliginousness and the bleak structure of the city.  Nighthawks is actually devoid of life for almost three quarters of the entire composition, and it is only when the viewer’s eyes arrive at the bottom right of the painting that there is light and life.  There are no apparent streetlights, and not a single window outside of the diner is lit.  The diner seems to be the only source of light, farther secluding it from the city.  This sharp contrast in lighting and the way Nighthawks is painted instills the impression of loneliness.

The people themselves are also used to emphasize the theme.  They help underscore the feeling of isolation and loneliness in the painting.  This is clearly shown by many characteristics seen on the people.  The man on the left side of the counter is at the focal point in the painting, and is hunched over in a posture that suggests that he feels alone.  The other two people that are sitting down seem almost a couple, but it is as if they are lost in thought.  An invisible barrier separates them.  The waiter is separated by a much more physical barrier-the counter.  He appears to be surrounded on al sides by it, cut off from the rest of the people around him.  This psychologically has the effect of automatically separating him from all the others.  The people’s faces also suggest loneliness; they are not looking at each other.  Rather, they are staring at empty space, not seeming to interact with those around them.  Although all of these people are in close proximity to each other, the stares, body postures, the counter, and the invisible yet tangible barrier suggests that they are indeed very lonely.

In conclusion, Hopper evinces the theme of the painting through these painterly techniques.  The way the painting is lit, along with the architecture and people, helps communicate the painting’s theme.  Edward Hopper painted Nighthawks after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1942.  The general population was beset by a bleak mood after this attack, and Nighthawks clearly illustrates this feeling.