Catintherain

Kristijan Medic
Mamoun Alzoubi
College Writing I
March 12, 2015
Cat in the Rain

In the duration of this essay, I will focus on the story titled Cat in the Rain and the
relationship between a husband and a young wife. Although the background between the two
may not be explained and the age is not blatantly evident, the progression of their dialogue gives
us an interesting view of expectations of the husband and the childlike expectations of the young
wife. It feels as if there is an astronomical age difference that may not be noticed in the first half
but is beyond evident in the second half of the story.
As the scenery of the story is explained from lines 1 to line 20, it is obvious that the
husband and the wife are not just well off financially but also in a place where beauty should go
beyond wealth. It is a place where the poor and the wealthy can be astonished in amazement of
beauty and history, yet the couple is in their room simply overlooking the beauty and the history
around them. While painters and other visitors took in the beauty, they stayed in their room
waiting for the rain to fall.
The simple dialogue regarding a cat in the rain that follows becomes intriguing and
shows us the childlike love the wife has and the manner the husband handles her actions. In line
25 of the story the wife prepares to go outside into the rain to collect a cat she sees hiding.
Although the husband is prepared to fetch the cat himself, he makes minimal effort to go forward
with his offer and simply instructs the young wife to not get wet in the process of her task. The
dialogue leave no room for imagination and assumptions to assume mutual respect and love
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because he has little concern to be by his wifes side when such a minor task seems so important
to her.
On her way to fetch the cat in the rain, the wife reveals to us the discomfort she may have
in her status of her surroundings. The hotel-keeper she seems to admire so much not due to her
knowing him well, but seems due to his concern for her in the bad weather. He was prepared to
server her best he could as a servant to a higher class she was and it made her not only grateful,
but also brought her to admire him on a more personal level. He cared for her in a way we did
not see her husband care in the prior lines. He made sure a maid was available to escort her to
retrieve the cat.
This is when we truly get a feel for the age of the wife and the discomfort she has in her
status. As the maid appears at her side and the wife explains the reason she is going outside, the
maid is mostly amused by her simple mission. Even a person in position below the wife can
sense the discomfort the wife feels of her status and is brave enough to deter the wife from what
she wanted. A simple request to go back inside makes the young wife insecure and turn around to
go back to her room. On her way back, the showing of respect makes the wife feel important but
at the same time her insecurity not only in herself but also in her status makes her feel small. It
really brings forward the questions of how her confidence is affected by the person who is
waiting back for her in her room.
As she enters her room, her husband shows little interest aside from asking is she found
the cat. He takes a pause from reading and although she shows her unhappiness, he opens his
book and continues. The wife is unsettled but refocuses on the appearance of her hair showing
she is unhappy. She sits in front of a mirror expressing her unhappiness about the way her hair
looks. she wants to have longer hair and although it may make her happy, the husband just states
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he likes it the way it is. As she presses her wishes not only of long hair but also about wanting
clothes and more belongings and again the want for a cat, she is told to shut up and read
something.
The interaction throughout this short story between the husband and the wife is one of a
man and a child. I can even say a man and property. She cannot fulfill her wants and even when
she was permitted to search for this cat in the rain, it was merely to not only amuse her for a
short while, but for the husband to get a moment to himself. The wife in this story is nothing
more than a decorative child the husband can walk on his arm. She is a prop in the upscale life he
has created for himself. A prop that needs to not only be decorated in the way he wishes, but also
have the needs and the wants he sees as appropriate. The moment a servant made her wants come
true is the moment the value of her marriage decreased even further. In the time period of their
marriage, the respect of a servant is more valuable than the respect and love of a husband
towards his wife.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. Cat in the Rain. S.l.: English and Media Centre 2000, n.d. Print.
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