This is clearly the story of two people who do not understand each
             other, and who have such emotional distance from each other it is difficult
             to think they will ever become a real couple. Nearly every passage in the
             text points to their emotional estrangement, and the husband's distance and
             disinterest in his wife. The husband is so engrossed in his book that he
             will allow his wife to go out in the rain to look for a cat. "'Don't get
             wet,' he said" (Hemingway 129). It is clear the woman will not get any
             help from her husband, physically or emotionally, and that the thought of
             helping her is quite far from his mind, he is only paying lip service to
             her, his book is far more important.
             As the story progresses, the woman is most often alone in the action,
             another item that points to the couple's lack of emotion and warmth for
             each other. She ventures out into the rain without an umbrella, the hotel-
             keeper sends a maid to help her, and she knows immediately it was him, and
             not her husband that acted kindly toward her. "Of course, the hotel-keeper
             had sent her" (Hemingway 130). She does not expect such kind treatment
             from her husband, and of course, does not receive it either. Not only is
             this a sad statement to their relationship, it is a sad statement to their
             compatibility and emotional well being. It is clear the woman wants more
             from her husband, and equally clear that he cannot give her what she wants.
             "'Oh, shut up and get something to read,' George said. He was reading
             again" (Hemingway 131). Her husband is selfish and self-indulgent, and
             when she pushes him too far, he pushes her away and retreats to his reading
             and his total disinterest. It is sad, and it is emotionally draining.
             This woman seems to have a maternal instinct that she needs to fill.
             She is also impatient, and if she cannot have a child, she wants something
             to take its place right aw...