In “Cat In The Rain” Hemingway doesn’t state any personal name until to the famale character wife returns to the room. After her return to the room except George, the husband, no one still has a name. Hemingway just used names that show the social roles like husband, wife, maid, hotel keeper. This is generalization of the story to all life. Article isn't about a specific husband and wife, it is about any wife and husband. That is why Hemingway doesn't state any personal names. If this is not about a specific husband and wife, why does not husband show any attention to his wife and how can he be so confident about not showing attention?
Article is about an American couple and the author is also American, so he is using his society as background. USA is a patriarchal and conservative society. In such societies, the most important figure is white, western, intellectual male, just like husband in the story,and the all rest is created for him.
The husband has all the features that an important figure should has. Author is emphasizing this importance during the whole story by his behaviours. The husband doesn't care about anything around. He doesn’t care about what is going on outside of the window. He is not paying any attention to what his wife is going to do or what she wants to do. He is just saying something to be kind like "don't get wet" but just saying, not doing anything, because his patriarchal and conservative society puts him in the centre of the world and everything must serve him.
The wife also has a social role in patriarchal and conservative society, and the wife in the story is following this social role. The wife should serve her husband and do what her husband wants. In the story we can see that husband's demands are more important then wife's. When she says she wanted long hair, the husband replies he likes it as it is and it stays as it is. In short, the husband decides for her hair. She is seeking for attention, interest and love but the husband doesn’t give any effort to do this because he is “supreme” person at the social roles. However the wife must always stand there for him and wait for the times he needs her. What else can poor wife do in a patriarchial society? As we see in the story, the wife cannot do anything and she is stuck in her social role.
There are also some other peripheral characters besides the wife, because the only central one is the husband. These are the hotel keeper and maid and they are just playing their role to please the supreme one, they are serving the wife but it is just because of her husband. According to them wife is also supreme because they are working class but the wife is a member of a higher class due to her husband. They are trying to serve the wife with their best by sending cat or umbrella, listen to her with all their attention. There is no appearent serving to husband by the hotel keeper and maid. However, by the help of some observations, we can quickly realize some points. He is at a hotel, most probably by his will, not wife's will, there must be a hotel keeper to serve him all the facilities in the hotel. Also he is in the bed during all story, it must be very comfortable to stay that much in, and we know that a maid is required to make bed comfortable. Maybe this serving to the husband can't be concluded from story but ı guess the author puts this concept unconciously, he just creates the concept from his society and this is an interpretation of society other than article.
The husband has a name after the wife returns to the room. It is stated as George. Here, his supremacy is emphasized again. He is someone but all others are social roles he needs, he is at the centre of everything. George is also a very common name in American society and also there are some supremes of supremes who has name, George like George Washington. This is emphasizing the husband's importance by either giving just him a personal name or establishing a connection between the husband and important figures.
Patriarchal and conservative society imposes the white, intellectual, western man as supreme. The wife is serving him and also all the working class is serving them. The author is uttering this in his story by mentioning them as their social status not by personal names. He is trying say that all the society is playing according to their social roles and any social role in the story will behave more and less same. And there is only one supreme, who has a personal name also, decides for everything.
ps: this is an assignment to expository writing course by aylin vartanyan in bogazici university
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