It seems that the woman has two sides of personality. She is overly dependent on her husband, but is also American in her energy. She runs outside in rain, speaks her mind, and even has the typical boyish haircut of the 1920s - flapper. It seems that she is unhappy because she cannot be a ''flapper girl'': independent and free-spirited while being tied by her marriage to a man who does not even listen to her and just enjoys looking at her. .
The American wife is bored, restless and perhaps homesick. The very idea of rescuing a cat gives her a sense of purpose. It is easy to feel her boredom in the scene where she just runs off to save the cat from the rain. She desperately wants a change. She wishes for springtime, when it is not, she wants long hair, and has a short hairstyle, as if she wants to change the things she cannot control. She wants a cat, her own silver, dining table and candles. At moments, it seems as if she is just spoiled. She might be, but she is also desperate, just like the cat in the rain. She wants to save the cat so badly, like she wants to be saved from her boring life, where no one listens to her. She is isolated, in a hotel in Italy, with only her husband. Her relationship with the hotel owner is also interesting. Well, not really a relationship, but what the padrone represents to her. She sees in him something old, serious, dignified, respectful, solid. The woman perceives him as a kind of authority, but she also feels that padrone understands her. .
The American wife is quite a complex character. She represents an American, free spirit with her rash decisions and needs that cannot be fulfiled, being stuck in a marriage that cannot give her what she wants. At the same time, she finds some sort of comfort in her relationship with the padrone, who represents the old, solid values of an older country, like Italy. This woman has a lot of desires that she cannot completely comperhend.