'Cat in the Rain' analyse

In 1925 Ernest Hemmingway wrote the short story “Cat in the rain”. The story is about an American couple, staying at a hotel in Italy on a rainy day. From the hotel room’s window, the American woman sees a cat attempting to keep dry, by sheltering from the rain under a café table. She decides she wants the cat so badly, so she walks down to the office and goes outside, but by the time, the wife comes downstairs, the cat is already gone.

The American wife is the main character. Ernest Hemmingway made the American wife the main character and the husband George, the hotel owner, and the maid the secondary characters in the short text. The American couple is on holiday in Italy, which is a sign that the couple is financially stable. The wife also talks a little Italian “Si, il Gatto” (S.358, L.29). There is a poor reference to the outer characterization of the American woman, as “I get so tired of looking like a little boy”(S. 359, L.25). But the description of the inner characterization is more profounded. The way she wants the cat so badly shows how solicitous and pitying she is. The woman isn’t aware of her own emotions, as she doesn’t know why she wants a kitten “I don’t know why I wanted it so much (…) (S.359, L. 12) She lacks awareness of her own emotions but still identifies in the cat as lonely and insulated “(…) I can have a cat” (S. 360, L. 8). The woman is also a little childish, the way she speaks and her actions, an example is that she calls the cat a kitty “(…) I wanted that poor kitty (…)” (S. 359, L. 12-14.) and her behavior towards George “(…) No, I’ll get it. (…)” (S. 357, L. 22-25).