The cringing kitty under the table in the rain is the ultimate image of isolation in "Cat in the Rain." Not only is it alone; it's also trapped. Like the cat, the American wife and her husband are both isolated from each other, which is made all the more palpable since they're living in such close quarters. Their isolation from everyone else as the only Americans in the hotel also reinforces the strangeness and discomfort of their feelings towards each other. The isolation between them is something you read in their lack of real communication, in the way they barely seem to hear or respond to one another. This gap between them is indeed wider and more difficult and hostile than any language barrier. This was definitely not a match made in heaven.
Questions About Isolation
- Why can't the husband and wife communicate?
- Why does the wife think that a cat will help her to feel less isolated?
- Why is reading an insufficient solution for the loneliness felt by the wife?
- Why does the padrone, specifically, make the wife feel less alone and insignificant than before?
Chew on This
The wife might feel that a different lifestyle will solve her isolation, but Hemingway shows in this story that it is a deeper problem of attitude and communication that plagues her.
The "very small and tight" feeling that the girl has before the padrone, as well as her "feeling of being of supreme importance" in that moment, offers sexual re-awakening as a possible solution to the problem of isolation.