Cathy Character Analysis in The Girl on the Train

Cathy is Rachel’s roommate and longtime friend since their university days. Niceness, Rachel believes, is Cathy’s defining quality—no matter how many times Rachel gets into trouble or makes a drunken mess, she feels that Cathy will always accept her as she is. As Rachel descends deeper and deeper into her struggles with alcoholism, however, Cathy takes a stand. She serves Rachel with a formal eviction notice (though she later rescinds it) and becomes determined to help Rachel stop drinking, find a new job, and get back on her feet. Cathy’s faith in Rachel’s capacity for change and self-improvement never wavers, and her generosity and patience toward Rachel are seemingly boundless.

Cathy Quotes in The Girl on the Train

The The Girl on the Train quotes below are all either spoken by Cathy or refer to Cathy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.

Related Characters: Rachel Watson (speaker), Cathy, Tom Watson

Page Number and Citation: 9

Explanation and Analysis:

As the book follows a typical day in Rachel’s life, it becomes clear that she’s lonely and alienated—not just from other people, but from her own emotions and mental health. Here, Rachel admits that she’s “lost control over everything” both in her life and within her own mind. Rachel lives in a small apartment with a friend from university, Cathy. Rachel isn’t even a tenant, merely subletting a room from her friend. She has no social or romantic life to speak of, she has been let go from her job, and she drinks heavily each day to numb the pain Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mo

"Honestly, Rachel, I don't understand how you could have kept this up for so long."

I shrug. "ln the morning, I take the 8:04, and in the evening, I come back on the 5:55. That's my train. It's the one I take. That's the way it is."

Related Characters: Cathy (speaker), Rachel Watson (speaker)

Related Symbols: Trains

Page Number and Citation: 157

Explanation and Analysis:

In this passage, Rachel’s roommate, Cathy, at last discovers that Rachel has not been commuting to and from work every day—Rachel lost her job months ago and has simply been riding the train to London each morning in order to keep up appearances. Cathy is shocked and dismayed—but more than anything, she feels sad for Rachel, who was so terrified of being seen as a failure that she lied to her closest friend and roommate. However, Cathy’s incredulous inquiry as to how Rachel kept up such a major lie doesn’t faze Rachel. As Rachel insists that riding the train each Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perfer

Cathy Character Timeline in The Girl on the Train

The timeline below shows where the character Cathy appears in The Girl on the Train. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Gaslighting, Memory, Repression, and the Self Theme Icon

...is a lodger, or sub-letter, who lives with a very kind friend from university named Cathy. The two of them are not very close—yet Rachel has been living in Cathy’s flat... (full context)

Addiction, Dependency, and Abuse Theme Icon

...gained weight, and her face has grown puffy from drinking. One night recently, she overheard Cathy and Cathy’s boyfriend Damien discussing the possibility of trying to set Rachel up with a... (full context)

...to the wound—but she fell asleep and left the uncooked meal downstairs to rot. When Cathy and Damien came home, Cathy asked Rachel to clean up the kitchen, which was covered... (full context)

Saturday, July 13, 2013. Rachel wakes to the sounds of Cathy cleaning the apartment, as she does each Saturday morning. Rachel dreads the day stretching ahead... (full context)

...it up to her bedroom, and plugs it in. She has two voicemails: one from Cathy asking where she is, and another from Tom scolding her for frightening Anna and hanging... (full context)

Rachel wakes to the sound of Cathy screaming at her for vomiting on the stairs. Rachel pulls on some clothes and goes... (full context)

Monday, July 15, 2013. As Rachel gets up to leave for work, Cathy hands her a formal eviction notice and gives her a big, sad hug. Rachel waits... (full context)

Rachel asks the doctor to call Cathy for her. The doctor steps out to do so, and Rachel recalls how she got... (full context)

...to head on to London from Witney, she realizes that she has a voicemail from Cathy. In the message, Cathy, who feels badly about Rachel’s taxi accident, tells Rachel that she... (full context)

...the train pulls into the station at Ashbury, Rachel receives yet another phone call—it is Cathy. The police are at the house waiting to talk to Rachel. (full context)

...to call him with any further information. Before leaving, Gaskill asked where Rachel worked. Because Cathy was in the room, Rachel lied about still being employed by the public relations firm... (full context)

Now, after a slightly boring lunch with Cathy, Rachel sits at home alone and begins itching for a drink. As she starts getting... (full context)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013. Rachel wakes up to the sound of Cathy entering her bedroom. Cathy assesses the empty wine bottles, warning Rachel that she’ll get fired... (full context)

When Rachel arrives home, Cathy confronts her about having lost her job months ago. Cathy says that her boyfriend, Damien,... (full context)

...from a dream in which she is being pursued through the woods. She can hear Cathy cleaning. Rachel has not left her room since Thursday—yet she vows that, starting tomorrow, she’ll... (full context)

Rachel hears Cathy coming and hurries Scott into her bedroom—she explains that Cathy might ask questions about his... (full context)

Thursday, August 15, 2013. Rachel is preparing for a job interview that Cathy has set up for her when Scott calls her to talk about what happened between... (full context)

Cathy Character Analysis

Cathy Quotes in The Girl on the Train

Rachel: One Quotes

Rachel: Eight Quotes

Cathy Character Timeline in The Girl on the Train