Analysis of the short story «Cat in the Rain» by E.Hemingway

    Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in The Rain” published in 1925 is a short story fulfilled with symbols and meaning. It relates about a young couple’s relationship and misunderstanding. The wife longs to be loved and be protected by her husband but he grants her only ignorance in response.
   The action takes place in an Italian hotel having as main characters a young American couple. It could possibly be the period after WW1:”Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument.” Looking through the window, on a rainy day, the wife sees a cat in the rain hiding underneath a table. She feels bad for the cat and she decides to go and get it. While her husband was busy reading a book the woman goes after the cat but it is no longer under the table. When she comes back into her room she starts complaining to her husband about wanting a cat, long hair, new clothes and other goods. The husband doesn’t seem to care much about his wife’s desires. The story ends with a maid knocking at the door holding a tortoise-shell cat for the American woman.
    The story has as main characters the wife and her husband. “The American Wife” as she is called in the text remains unnamed throughout the entire story. Once the author begins his story, she is presented as “The American wife” nevertheless later on she is referred as to “the American girl”. This “American wife/girl” is the main protagonist of the story, a young lady who is on holiday with her husband. The author changes dramatically his opinion and calls her “The American girl” when she starts acting childish and choses to call a cat “kitty” several times: («I’m going down and get that kitty»/ «I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap»/ “I want a kitty”); She never stops complaining about the things she wants: (” And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.” )Moreover “And I want to eat at a table with my own silver” prompts us the fact that the young couple doesn’t have anything of their own.The girl’s feeling of loneliness is visible right from the beginning of the story till the end. Her husband doesn’t listen or care much about what she is saying. He lies in bed and is concerned only about the book he is reading:” George was not listening. He was reading his book.”
   Another character of the story is the American girl/wife’s husband named George. Even though at the beginning he offers himself to go and get the cat for his wife during the rest of the story George doesn’t care about anything but his reading: “‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again.”/” George was reading again.”.
   The owner of the hotel is a minor character of the story:” the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed the office. His desk was at the far end of the office. He was an old man and very tall.” The American girl/wife looked smitten with the padrone whereas there is no mention of her being in love with her husband and vice versa, not even a slightest bit:” He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and big hands.” There is something about the hotel owner that inspires an instant admiration for the American girl/wife, he treats her the way her husband doesn’t:” As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance.”
    As I can mention a few themes this story depicts, I find them being in a strong correlation and having a crucial impact on the couple’s relationship. One of the themes revealed in the story is the lack of communication that further, in the wife’s case, develops into complete loneliness. Her husband is the one who enjoys reading books better than listening to his own wife. Hence, she remains the one tortured by this kind of alienation. Next to be mentioned is selfishness which both: the wife and her husband are to be blamed for. She is the one complaining about what she wants ‘’I want…I want…I want’’ whereas he chooses his book over his wife all the time. Both of them don’t care about anyone else but their own personality, their own will and desires.
   The title of the story “Cat in The Rain” is extremely symbolic and might be decoded as the wife’s yearn for a child. She looks for somebody she could take care of: “I wanted it so much, ‘I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It isn’t any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain.’’ Anyways, the last statement might be interpreted in a different way as the wife is the one comparing herself with the cat. She herself, might have been through a tough period in her life where she needed somebody’s support. In sustaining these two hypothesis, the author retells about the cat personifying it using “SHE”:” The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.”
    In order to draw the reader’s attention the author uses a number of stylistic devices. First to be mentioned are the repetitions used by the main character, the wife: “I wanted it so much. I don’t know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty.” The author points out the husband’s one and only activity which is reading: “Her husband went on reading”, “George was on the bed, reading”, “George was reading again”. The word “rain” is used as a repetition through the whole story and as a symbol for their unhappy family life: “It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees.”
    To conclude, the author reveals the lack of communication and selfishness as being relationship destroyers. These are the ones to put the happiness of a young family in jeopardy. It is such a hollow little life that one leads if not showing any kind of affection. As the cat is brought for the lady, at the end, there is still hope, as in the midst of turmoil beautiful things may or may not happen.