Cat In The Rain

Being married and committed to each other, means listing and showing each other your love. Feeling lonely and bored, and feeling like the person you love the most doesn’t give you anything, but rejection, shouldn’t be a part of a marriage. This is what the wife in “Cat in the rain” seems to deal with.

The wife in this story has a lot of needs; especially because of the lack of attention her husband, George gives her. She wants something more, something he doesn’t give her. She’s bored and lonely and wants something more: “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.” – This line actually says a lot about her, because she sounds extremely immature and selfish, but what is really is, is a desperate beg for attention, and not any attention, but his. In some way she’s really egoistic, because at first you would think that she wants to safe the cat, because she feels bad for it, but later on we discover that she actually feels bad for herself, she doesn’t care about the cat and how it feels, she only cares about herself and how she feels. She desires some excitement, and the cat is just a tool to get that. It’s clear to see how the wife, goes from being a grown women, to being childish, because in the beginning of the story, the narrator refers to her as the American wife, but as the story progresses, he refers to her as a girl “As the American girl passed the office...” “Something felt very small and tight inside the girl”

George, who is her husband, seems of tired of her. It’s like he actually doesn’t care about her or her feelings. “’Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said. He was reading again.” – Line 8-9, page 32. – She tries to tell him about her feelings, how sad she is and that she needs him, but he doesn’t listen. He just keeps reading, and tell her to do the same thing, which makes it look he has given up on her. There’s nothing left for them, nothing they can do or talk about. George is really unaware of his wife’s needs and her desire to be loved and her desire to be living her life, which we see in this line: “George was not listening. He was reading his book” – He doesn’t see how much she needs him and he just thinks that what she’s saying doesn’t matter.

The couple is at a Hotel in Italy “Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden.” Everything seems good and beautiful, until it we get to know that it was raining: “It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths.” The picture of the beautiful setting turns immediately, and it draws a picture in our heads of a sad, rainy day, where everybody sits inside in silent, waiting for it to be over. The setting is generally really depressing, because the couple is the only ones at the hotel and it’s raining outside, which again draws a picture of dark colors and a sad atmosphere.

The rain plays a big role in this story, because it gives a feeling of imprisonment, which reflects the way the wife in the story feels. Everybody is imprisoned inside the hotel, but the wife also feels that way inside her own body and she feels imprisoned in her own marriage. It’s raining on their vacation, which often gives us a disappointing feeling. The raining shows us that things aren't how they should be, which reflect George and his wife’s marriage very well.
The cat is a symbol of her. The cat is trapped beneath the table, the rain is pouring down all around it, while it sits tight and as little as possible, trying not to get wet. The way the cat feels and the way it’s trapped beneath that table reflects the way the wife feels; “Something felt very small and tight inside the girl”, the cat's pitifulness and lack of protection, is the same as the wife’s. Both of them need something, they both needs to be safe and to be loved.

The story is very simple written. There aren’t to many adjectives or anything else. We have to interpret what is happening and why she is saying the way she is. He is using the iceberg technic, we doesn’t get to know why their relationship is the way it is, why she feels so lost and have so many needs. We only get to see the top of the conflict.

Again feeling like the person you love the most doesn’t give you anything, but rejection, shouldn’t be a part of a marriage. The way the wife acts is just because of the lack of a attention. He makes her feel like she’s nothing, which is why she wants to change and why she wants something more.