Journaling on Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain” (c.
1925)
Lisa Napell Dicksteen
EGL 204-4
Literary Analysis &
Argumentation
In this look at an indolent couple
whose neglected marriage is foundering, Hemingway brings to life not only their
specific troubles, but the relationship between Americans and Italians in
post-World War I Italy. The American wife’s seemingly simple, and ultimately
unsuccessful, act of going out into the dark piazza in the rain to rescue a
damp kitten requires the intervention of two other people, the hotel owner and
the maid he insists must accompany the American, carrying an umbrella to keep
their guest dry. The American doesn’t try to refuse or even acknowledge this
effort. She merely takes it as her due.
The heavy-handedly repetitious
references to the nearby war monument in the beginning of the story (55, 60)
remind the reader of the damage done to the losing countries in this war, and
the relatively little damage suffered by the Americans. We are reminded of how
inexpensive it was for Americans to travel to and in Italy at this time, and of
how they continued, in their blissful ignorance, to trample
the country and its inhabitants long after the war was over. (Not that I am
taking the Italian side in the war, I am referring to the civilian cost of any
war.)
The way that Hemingway is able to
bring an entire relationship into focus in only a few lines is remarkable.
After the wife returns, wet and empty-handed, she takes a seat at the vanity
and, preening in the mirror, commences whining about her life. In the course of
this childish ramble, she asks, “Don’t you think it would be a good idea if I
let my hair grow out?” (57) Her husband, George, “shifted his position in the
bed. He hadn’t looked away from her since she started to speak. ‘You look
pretty darn nice,’ he said.” (57) She disagrees, mainly to be difficult I think,
bu,t perhaps because while
she finally has his attention, it is not the type of attention she wanted and
she thinks that by continuing to talk she will be able to engage him in
conversation and prolong the interaction. She continues whining about how she
wishes she’d gotten the cat, specifying that she’d like to hold it in her lap
and stroke it and listen to it purr. This is a fairly un-subtle sexual innuendo
and seems to be indicative of the unconscious child/sexy game she played in
their courtship.
It works; holding his attention at
least. He has been watching her playing in the mirror and may have been
beginning to feel somewhat amorous. His one word response, “Yeah?” (57) is uttered from his prone position on the bed. It indicates
his interest, but it is a tentative offering and must be met by hers. Oblivious,
she continues to whine about other things she wants, insensible to his desire,
to his existence. “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.” (57)
His desire is melted. His boredom and
annoyance are back. He tells her to shut up. She moves to the window and
continues, “’Anyway, I want a cat,’ she said. ‘I want
a cat. I want a cat now. If I can’t have long hair or any fun, I can have a
cat.’” He has heard this (or a variation thereof) before and is no longer
listening. She has said this, or a variation thereof before and may not even be
listening herself.
This strikes me as something that has
been played out over and over in their marriage; these missed connections.
Perhaps on other occasions she has reached out and been met with rejection in
the form of a book, or received attention that was sexual when what she wanted
was decidedly not. Perhaps they had grand plans in the beginning and now are
staying in inexpensive hotels and pensions because that’s all they can afford.
Disappointment; with life, with each other, with themselves, is written all
over them. It is eating away at their relationship. I don’t think of this as a
marriage that will endure.
Another aspect of this story that I
find revealing is the relationship between the maid and the American wife. The
text book doesn’t even deem the maid worthy of listing as a character, only
noting the hotel owner and the couple, yet she plays an integral part in both
the little action there is and the underlying social commentary. The maid is
honest in her feeling of anger and resentment toward this spoiled, rich
American woman who clearly cares more for the stray kitten than she does for
the maid, who also suffers from the effects of the rain (and the war). The maid
functions as a piece of furniture to the wife – holding the umbrella over her
and reminding her to come in from the rain. The maid is acting on the
instructions of the hotel owner, (her boss and source of income) who has seen
the American heading out into the rain and sent the maid to protect their
paying customer from herself. It matters not to the American that the maid gets
wet while keeping her dry. The hotel owner knows, but is unable to help; the
customers must be cared for – even at the expense of the staff.
At the end, when the maid appears at
the couple’s door with the “big tortoise-shell cat pressed right against her
and swung down against her body,” (58) as a gift to the wife from the hotel
owner, I was angry. As it was not wet (as the lost kitten would have been) and
it was described as being rather large (unlike a kitten), I was sure that this
was not the same kitten the wife had been searching for, and felt that it might
even have belonged to the hotel owner or the maid herself. This represented
another indignity suffered by these civilians following a devastating war. I
felt humiliated for the maid, being forced to make this gesture, but the couple
remained oblivious.
After listening to the class
discussion, which seemed to feel that I was reading into the story things that
were not there (I cannot locate the precise phrases as the book is on loan to
another student as I revise this) I am willing to consider that I found
something not explicit in the text. However, I maintain that this is how I felt
when reading the story for the first time, and the second and third as well, so
there must be some turn of phrase that I used as a diving board. I do recall a
line indicating that maid’s face tightened when the wife – who clearly speaks
at least a little Italian – speaks to her in English while they are out in the
rain, as well as an overall sense of bemused tolerance from the padrone and something more like reluctant forbearance from
the maid.
Some might say the cat is a child
symbol. I thought of that, and my main response was relief that only a cat was
being left with this narcissistic pair, rather than an actual human child.
These people will become bored with the cat soon; it will be neglected, perhaps
left at the next hotel. A child would fare horribly with parents as
self-involved as these.
Perhaps this American couple is among
the first representations of what was to become the stereotypical “ugly
American” in
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. “Cat in
the Rain.” An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Sylvan, Barnet et al. 13th
ed.