The "Cat in the Rain" Analysis.

In his short story "Cat in the Rain" Ernest Hemingway masterly depicts how a person can feel lonely being in relationship. 

The plot of the story is rather simple. The story begins with the description of a hotel in Italy where two Americans, a woman and her husband, live. It is heavy raining and while the husband reads the book the American wife observes a cat outside. She wants to take that cat, but it is gone. Later, the woman is brought another cat. 

The whole story represents a short period of time. The reader doesn't know who are the characters, what happened with them in the past, as well there is nothing said about the future. The author doesn't give any description of the characters, the only thing that the reader knows is that the husband's name is George and he likes reading. The only thing that the author mentions about the woman's appearance is that she has got short hair. 

From the very beginning the author emphasises the mood of the story by using such words as "empty", "the motor cars were gone". The author uses simple propositions in the first paragraph which tell about the monotonous mood of the story :"There room was on the ...", "There were big palms", "The rain dripped", "The sea broke", "The motor cars...". 

Almost all the story is based on the dialogue. At the beginning of the dialogue the woman talks to her husband, who "Went on reading, lying propped up with two pillows at the foot of the bed". Although the husband pretends to wish to offer the help to his wife, he doesn't seem to care about her: when the woman goes to take the cat from the rain, the husband just replies: "Don't get wet". At the same time, the hotel-keeper is more concerned about the woman and sends the maid with an umbrella to help the woman in rain. 

The author opposes two men: the husband and the hotel-keeper. There is nothing said about the way the woman treates her husband and there are lots of "She liked" concerning the hotel-keeper. The author uses repetition to emphasise the way the woman treats the hotel-keeper. Each sentence begins with "She liked". Unlike her husband, the padrone makes the woman "feel very small and at the same time really important". At this moment, George is on the bed, reading, pretending that he is interested if his wife got the cat. 

The woman goes on telling that she wants that cat, and she wants to grow her hair, and she wants to eat at a table with her own silver. So, by telling this, she tells the husband that she is tired of living at the hotel, she wants to have her own house, she wants to change the life. When the woman tells George that she wants to grow her hair, he tells that he likes the way she looks. Actually, he likes the life they live and he doesn't want to change it. The woman keeps on repeating that she wants a cat, which means she wants a new life, she wants her husband to make their living better. The man doesn't listen to her anymore, keeping on reading.

After a while, the cat is brought by the maid, sent by the hotel-keeper. However, it is not that cat that the woman wants. 

The tragedy of this short story is that the woman wants to be listened, loved and understood by her husband, who is blind and deaf towards her, and the stranger understands her better than the husband. The woman feels lonely, although she isn't alone.