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SHORT STORY ANALYSIS “Cat in the Rain” By Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s story “Cat in the Rain” is a short story which depicts the
relationship between an American couple which was affected by the
consequences of the war period and they continued their existence facing the
problem of misunderstanding and loneliness in a marriage. The writer focused his
attention on the loneliness of the wife’s heart because of the indifference of her
husband, but on the other hand he underlined indirectly that many men came
there to see the bronze war monument. So the writer described how that
monument looked like, but in fact he might have described the monument with
the aim of pointing the reader’s attention to the fact that there was a war and the
human continued to live but they did not forget about the tragic event.

“Cat in the Rain” was written in the 20th century and during that period many of
the writers based theirs works on the consequence of the war describing the
result of that tragic period upon the man’s life and man’s feelings. That’s why in
this very story the reader might find out that there was a lack of communication
between those two married people. The wife and her husband George were so
distanced that they even had no idea what one wanted and what was in their
mind. One of them, namely George, was passionately reading his books (“…The
husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of
the bed. “) while his wife was longing for having someone to take care of ( “I want
to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her..”).
The author began with depicting the characters of the story: the American couple.
Then he described that they stood at a hotel near which was a war monument.
The wife was looking through the window and she saw a cat which was in the
rain. The wife wanted to take the cat, that’s why she left the room. As she went
downstairs, she had met the house-keeper. She liked him. When she went out she
understood that the cat wasn’t already there. Thus she returned to the hotel. She
had a conversation with George, her husband. But George was not listening. At
the end of the story, the maid of the hotel brought a big cat to the wife from the
part of the house-keeper.

The title of the story is a suggestive and a symbolic one. As we know, it is in the
nature of the cats to dislike the rain at all. If it begins to rain, they hide where it is
a warm place not to get wet. But in this case, the cat is “in the rain”. The writer

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could emphasize the faintness of this cat to overcome the situation, the rain. It is
unclear why the writer chose the cat. His choice might be commented that
possibly he could compare the cat with the baby for whom the wife may want to
devote her time and attention.  The “cat” might have been the symbol of the
wife’s loneliness caused by the fact that her husband was incapable to
understand her feelings. In other words, she probably needed more attention and
compassion from the part of her husband.

The story has a precise setting and namely in a hotel (“There were only two
Americans stopping at the hotel.”). The action took place in Italy because the stuff
of the hotel (the hotel-keeper, the maid) spoke Italian language. Because the
room was situated on the second floor the couple had the opportunity to have a
good panorama from their room. There was a public garden near the hotel and
the war monument. The garden comprised big palm trees which beatify the
garden. It was a rainy day and the square was empty. No one was outside except
a waiter who stood in the café which was placed across the square. The writer
pointed these settings directly, however he mentioned more than two times the
war monument. In this way, the writer drove the attention, in an indirectly way,
to the fact that the action took place after the war.

As the story has narrative elements, it is not so difficult to determine its structure.
Thus the story opened with an exposition where the author depicts the two main
characters of the story, the setting (“There were only two Americans stopping at
the hotel.[…] “ and then he moved slowly to the conflict of rising action (“The cat
was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.”). As
the story developed, the author revealed the conflict (“I’m going down and get
that kitty,’ the American wife said. ‘I’ll do it,’ her husband offered from the bed.
‘No, I’ll get it”). When the climax was announced (“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.”), the reader could understand that the wife wanted a change and she
was longing for the life that was before the war. She announced her wish to have
a cat (“If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat.”). That was the
moment when came the dénouement (the outcome of the conflict). The narrator
went on saying that George was not listening and he was still reading his book
when the maid brought “a big tortoiseshell cat” which the house-keeper sent to

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the wife.  The author put an emphasis on the “tortoiseshell cat” which could
represent the wife’s hope that there would come a change in their life.

Actually there are two main characters in the story (the American couple), and
two minor characters (the house-keeper and the maid). Throughout the story it is
evident that the cat was also present directly or indirectly in all the scenes, for
example at the beginning of the story the wife saw the cat outside; then the
woman talked at first with her husband about the cat, then with the house-
keeper and finally the maid brought a cat. As a consequence we can consider the
cat as a minor character of the story.

The story is based on depicting the relationship of the American couple. It is very
interesting that the wife had no name, but the author gave to her husband a
name: George. This means that the husband was superior in that family. At the
beginning of the story he was rather polite and he held a dialogue with his wife
(“I’m going down and get that kitty,’ the American wife said. ‘I’ll do it,’ her
husband offered from the bed.”). Later on, he disguised himself and became more
indifferent and rude toward his wife (“Oh, shut up and get something to read,”).
While her husband was nonchalant, the wife had a lot of wishes for their future
and she wanted some changes in order to have their own home with all the
necessary things (“I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles.
[…]”).

As the wife liked the house-keeper’s seriousness, politeness and dignity (The wife
liked him. She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints […]”) it
becomes evident that she needed someone to talked to. The house-keeper was
gentle and because of that he sent her a cat at the end of the story.

To conclude, Hemingway’s story “Cat in the Rain” deals with the most important
problem of the humans that of the relationship in a couple. In fact, it is a story
which highlights that there could not be a good relationship where the loneliness,
the misunderstanding, selfishness and solitude exist. This story is suggestive even
nowadays and it can serve as an example of how people shouldn’t behave with
the person’s they love.

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The cringing kitty under the table in the rain is the ultimate image of isolation in
"Cat in the Rain." Not only is it alone; it's also trapped. Like the cat, the American
wife and her husband are both isolated from each other, which is made all the
more palpable since they're living in such close quarters. Their isolation from
everyone else as the only Americans in the hotel also reinforces the strangeness
and discomfort of their feelings towards each other. The isolation between them
is something you read in their lack of real communication, in the way they barely
seem to hear or respond to one another. This gap between them is indeed wider
and more difficult and hostile than any language barrier. This was definitely not a
match made in heaven. The wife's restlessness is a mounting force in this story.
She's unable to say what exactly is making her dissatisfied in her life; instead, she
harps on a multitude of small things. Her dissatisfaction with the life she leads
with her husband is particularly problematic because, like the cat trapped under
the table in the rain, there's not really any way to escape—or so we think.
The wife in this story is almost constantly in motion, but her husband is the
complete opposite of this. He's perfectly content with his reading. He even
suggests that his wife does the same after throwing a cranky "shut up" in her
direction.
George is the most inactive figure in the story. His eyes look up from the book
now and then, he "shifts" at one point, but the guy never actually leaves the bed.
George's sense of stability and satisfaction is in the life of books, you might say,
rather than in his own life—the one that he shares with his wife, and it's clear in
this story that she's starting to feel and voice dissatisfaction.
In a way, George's character represents everything the wife wants to escape. Her
wish list is full of material goods, which can be seen as at odds with her husband's
fondness of intellectual fulfillment. George might sense her dissatisfaction with
him, which would explain the slightly touchy "shut-up." Then again, he's just
trying to read his darn book.