Symbolism in Cat in the Rain

Essay on Cat in the Rain

In his short story Cat in the Rain, Ernest Hemingway uses imagery and subtlety to convey to the reader that the relationship between the American couple is in crisis and is quite clearly dysfunctional. In other words, the reader has to have a symbolic reading of the images. In fact, what seems to be a simple tale of an American couple spending a rainy afternoon inside their hotel room serves as a great metaphor for their relationship. This symbolic imagery, hided behind common objects, gives the story all its significance.

This short story contains a great number of striking and literary symbols. In a symbolic reading, the opening paragraph describes the crisis that exists in the marriage of the couple. In other words, the description of the bad weather, of the “empty square”(l.10) and of their isolation, reflects this conflict and also sets the negative mood. In fact, since the beginning, Ernest Hemingway insists on the isolation of the couple that “does not know any of the people they passed” (ll.1-2) and are “only two Americans”(l.1). Here it is interesting to notice that they are isolated from the outside world but also from each other. There is no communication and they have no contact, they are distant from each other. Then this isolation is accentuated because of the weather, it is raining. The rain is part responsible for the fact that they have to stay in their room. Nevertheless, the rain has a symbolic meaning together with the description of the public garden. It represents as suggests the critic John V. Hagopian the “lack of fertility” (p.230) .

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This lack is accentuated by the great repetition of the substantive and verb “rain”, which appears at least five times, and by words which have to do with rain like “sea”, “water”, “pools” and “dripped/dripping” up to line sixteen. In such a text it is significant when a word or term is repeated. The “rain” becomes symbolic because for the nature it means fertility. The imagery of absence of fertility is also suggested by the “man in a rubber cape”. For John Hagopian, “the rubber cape is protection from rain, and rain is a fundamental necessity for fertility, and fertility is precisely what is lacking in the American wife’s marriage” (p.231). All this physical description - the rain, the war monument, the emptiness of the square – foreshadow the depressive state of the central character, the American wife and contribute to the meaning of the story as a whole. Moreover, the first paragraph also sets a certain tension. There is not a hint of humour through the story. Even when the maid laughs because the American wife is looking for a cat in the rain, the next sentence “when she talked English, the maid’s face tightened” (l.44), eliminates any possibility of a light of humorous mood.

On the second paragraph appears the major symbol around which the story revolves. It is the cat. This symbolic animal is so essential to the tale that it is described right in the title. The cat symbolically reveals the psychological state and emotional desires of the American wife. On other words it is a metaphor for the woman. She identifies herself to it. This connection between the wife and the animal is made to the reader when she described the cat as “she”. In fact, although the wife is not physically close enough , she determines its gender. In addition, the American woman’s empathy for the cat is shown through her persistence to rescue it from the rain despite the fact that she has to go out and

get wet herself. She knows “it isn’t any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain”(l.58).

This demonstrates that she feels herself like a cat drowning in the rain. All this implies that her husband is the source of her emotional despair. He does not really give her the attention she deserves. He is indifferent to her needs. Consequently, the cat symbolises what she wants physically that is to say to be held, stroked, touched, and emotionally to be loved and cared for. All what her husband does not give her. Further, the cat can also represent her desire of “motherhood” (p.232), of having a child, that is to say someone after whom you can look . In brief, the cat is who will fill the lack of affection, fertility and the emptiness.

The most significant speech in the story is delivered in front of a mirror by the American wife. It demonstrates how the woman is frustrated in her relationship. The enumeration of her wishes of having a “kitty”, “her own silver and candles”, “long hair and new clothes” is symbolic. And the repetition of the verb “I want”, which appears at least ten times, accentuates the despair of the wife. She is saying that she desires concrete, tactile, palpable pleasures . In other words, this material needs are the replacement for the emotional support she does not receive from her husband. She is tired that he repressed her wishes. In the text, his static posture reveals his indifference and inability to understand and see his wife’s problems. Moreover, the emotional distance between the couple is illustrated by George’s remark “Oh, shut up and get something to read” (l.80). In fact, the American wife does not need something to read, she needs something to feel. Besides, all these things taken together indicate her desire of “motherhood”4, having an own “home”4 and her feminity. On other words her desire of long hair demonstrates that she feels unwomanly , like a boy with her short hair, which emphasizes her weakness and lack of feminity.

The other symbolic character is the hotel-keeper. He has provided both symbolic and literal cats from the rain. He is the only man up to now who responded to her needs rather than her husband. Moreover, he is the only one who causes her “momentary feeling of being of supreme importance” (l.51). She admires “ the way he wanted to serve her” (l.27). This great attraction to him is underlined by the repetitions of the verb “she liked”. It demonstrates the great contrast between the husband and the hotel-keeper. This rift is more obvious at the end of the story when the hotel owner send the maid to bring a cat to the American wife. He has provided her with the attention that she is not receiving from her husband. The hotel-keeper also procures her the feeling of comfort and protection that her husband denies her. In brief, the lack of attention is filled at least emotionally by the owner of the hotel but it is also suggested that she will be satisfied sexually . And this fullness is here symbolised by the intermediary of the cat.

In conclusion, Hemingway’s use of symbolism is a great contribution to the richness of his characters. It allows the reader to better understand the psychological experiences of the characters with their entourage. Without this symbolic images, for instance in this text the cat, the story would lose much of both their colour and clarity. Moreover, Ernest Hemingway has succeeded very well in this story in showing that individualism of the people living with their own problem is in many case the cause of split and despair.

All further references are to this edition : Ernest Hemingway, “Cat in the Rain” . The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, ed. Jackson J. Berson (Dwham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975).

John V. Hagopian, “Symmetry in ‘Cat in the Rain’”, College English, XXIV (December 1962).