Commentary on Cat In The Rain Essay

Cat in the rain

The story Cat in the rain by Ernest Hemingway is about a couple that are vacationing in Italy. They are in a hotel room on a rainy day and while the husband George is on the bed reading, his wife spots a cat through the window outside in the rain getting wet. She mentions this to her husband but he shows little interest in this issue and continues reading. This suggests that there are problems in the marriage.

The wife wants the cat as something to care for and be responsible for. she may want it to make herself feel grown up by taking care of something and possibly even want a baby. George does not feel this way by the way he acts and how serious his behavior is depicted. George and his wife want different things out of the marriage and this may be what is causing the problems in their marriage. They are on different pages when it comes to their needs. George does not understand the problem his wife is having and therefore he does not understand the problem of their relationship. He is satisfied with the way things are in the marriage but his wife is not. An example of this is when his wife is talking about growing her hair out because she thinks that her short hair makes her look boyish but all George says is that it looks fine. She also tells him that she would like some silver to eat from, candles, and the cat, again referring to the cat as if it were something that is missing from the relationship. The sentence where she mentions that she wants it to be spring again stands for her wish that there was a new spring in her relationship. At the end of the story the wife gets a cat brought to her by the maid on the request of the pardon. It is not important whether it is the same cat that she saw outside of her window but now she has that responsibility that she wanted and what was missing from her marriage, something to care for and be responsible for.

Cat in the rain is about the problems that George and his wife were having in their marriage. These problems can be interpreted as the rainy weather outside and it sets the mood for the rest of the story. The cat that the wife sees out in the rain stands for what she is missing in her marriage and what she wants out of her marriage. In the end the wife gets her cat and she is happier because now she has something that she was not getting from her marriage.