Psychoanalysis Reading of Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain” DOCX

Title	Psychoanalysis Reading of Ernest Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain”
Author	Ploy Suriyaporn
Pages	5
File Size	19 KB
File Type	DOCX
Total Downloads	592
Total Views	857

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Suriyaporn 1 Suriyaporn Eamvijit Ajarn Darin Pradittatsanee Introduction to Modern Critical Theory 7 August 2012 In Search of Puberty: Psychoanalysis Reading of Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" portrays the development of a girl according to Freudian theory. Hemingway uses symbols to show the different stages of the wife's mental quest for sexual puberty by escaping from Electra complex. The first evidence showing that this story represents Freudian development of children lies in the relationship between the husband and the wife. Despite their marital status, their relationship is more like a father and daughter. The story doesn't describe sexual feelings or intimacy between the couple, which is different from the padrone. Their relationship is also like paternal relationship in a way that it portrays the image of the governor and the governed. wife is like the husband's daughter because she is controlled and repressed by him. She can't grow longer hair or satisfy her desires because her husband said so. Her short hair helps emphasize her childishness because hair can symbolize feminity or sexuality in a way that it can arouse sexual desire and can be indirectly referred to body hair children grow when they grow up. Therefore, the wife's hair that "clipped close like a boy"(2) might symbolize her childishness and her position as a daughter instead of a wife. She expresses her childishness when she is throwing tantrum on the husband. "'Anyway, I want a cat,' she said, 'I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have a long hair or any fun, I can have a cat'" (3). Moreover, her childishness is emphasized by the name-shift in the story....