Have you ever seen or used a pressure cooker? If the marriage in "Cat in the Rain" were a piece of kitchen equipment, that's probably what it would be. The wife's restlessness is a mounting force in this story. She's unable to say what exactly is making her dissatisfied in her life; instead, she harps on a multitude of small things. Her dissatisfaction with the life she leads with her husband is particularly problematic because, like the cat trapped under the table in the rain, there's not really any way to escape—or so we think.
Questions About Dissatisfaction
- Does Hemingway seem to sympathize with the wife's dissatisfaction? Or does he, like George, think that she's just being whiny?
- Does Hemingway signal that the George is dissatisfied too? How?
- How does Hemingway use the wife's specific "wants" to describe the source of her dissatisfaction?
- Do you think that the couple will stay together? Why or why not?
Chew on This
In "Cat in the Rain" Hemingway uses frustrations and desires for material things to point towards deeper existential dissatisfactions in his characters.
The American wife's restlessness with her restless lifestyle allows Hemingway to critique the paradox of free-spirited American Bohemians in the 1920s.