Cathedral Essay

The husband failed to acknowledge the relationship between Robert and his wife poses a threat to his marriage. The husband is unable to see the level of intimacy that exists

When the narrator first hears that Robert will stay with him and his wife he becomes agitated. He hears stories of Robert, but always feels jealous of the relationship between Robert and his wife. The narrator describes the news of Roberts visit by saying “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me…

In comparison, in “Cathedral” the narrator’s lack of vulnerability at this point of the story is beginning to be a problem, yet a beginning of a silver lining starts to show. From this point on forward in the story Husband and wife and the blind man are settling down, having a little bit of small talk and enjoying each other's company over some drinks. “I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn’t smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled”(Guy)said the narrator, he states that because Robert was smoking, this clashes preconceived notions about blind people. After that they enjoyed a great dinner and all the while the narrator once again is enamored of how effortlessly the blind man can find

One of these main lessons I believe was that there is a difference between physically seeing and perceptively seeing. Although Robert was not able to see things physically like the narrator, he was able to perceive things in a way that the narrator could not. This could be seen when it came to Robert and the narrator's wife. Even though the Robert was unable to see the narrator's wife, he could perceptively see her, understand her, and listen to her in a way the narrator was unable to. He understood her problems and poetry, and give her companionship in a way that the husband did not see that she needed. From the beginning of the story, the narrator gave the impression that he believed he was better than the blind man because he had physical sight. After realizing the blind man understood his wife more and during the last moments when the two of them drew a cathedral together, the narrator's perspective changed.

He is always focused on his wife, and even though it is not his ideal of a perfect marriage he does seem to love and admire his wife as if it was. He is capable of telling us a lot of details about his wife without ever calling her out or even trying to persuade us to dislike her. His love for her makes it possible for the narrator to get past his dislike of Robert, and allow him to stay in his house. Even after all the dislike he shares with us in the very beginning of the story. He comes into the kitchen to talk to his wife, and tries his best to be a nice guy about the topic of the blind guest which is a much different view from earlier. This persuades us to look at the narrator in his wife's perspective, even though we have knowledge that she doesn't about the narrators anxiety over Robert. Another large detail we have over the wife is that the narrator is jealous of Robert and is just using his blindness as a scapegoat. However, even though this extreme case of jealousy is unhealthy for their relationship, the narrator, in his own way, tells his wife he loves her. When his wife tells him "If you love me... you can do this for me. If you don't love me, okay." he does exactly that and tries to make Robert comfortable (Carver 107).

When Robert arrived in his house, the speaker began his transformation.  It began immediately upon seeing Robert with his wife, his eyes drawn to the smile Robert had placed on her face.  The speaker witnessed the depth of conversation Robert had with his wife, as if he wasn't even in the room, and it seemed to spark some jealousy.  Most of the changes that the speaker underwent in his understanding of Robert were because he realized that Robert was "normal."

His further ignorance about the blind are focused in on Robert since he is aware of his upcoming visit. Hearing the marriage stories about Robert from his wife the narrator cannot realize how a woman could love a blind man, "It was beyond my understanding. Hearing this, I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit. And then I found myself thinking what a pitiful life this women must have led" (508). This ignorance and immature understanding of relationships overshadows his attitude toward Roberts visit, unwanted and condescending. His attitude toward the blind man seems to change though before and furtherly during the connection they make as they draw the cathedral together. Although there is no evidence that the narrator's overall ignorances and prejudices are gone from the experience, it is very clear however that he does come to some sort of revelation and enlightment, "My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything" (515). Because what the narrator draws is a cathedral it is only assumable that this enlightment that the narrator experiences has to do with values of Christianity, in this case it would be a realization of equality and treating people with love, little is said about the effects this revelation has on him.

The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).

As the story continues it exposes the many things that the husband fails to realize. For example, the husband neglects to recognize that Robert can feel. Robert commented about the train ride from the city that he’d "nearly forgotten the sensation" (1055). The husband does not understand that what blind people cannot see they can experience by feeling and hearing. The husband does not see what is underneath the skin or what is behind a face. The husband sees people and things at face value; he doesn’t look beneath the surface. In contrast, the blind man "sees" things with his ears, his hands, and his heart. Robert does not let the fact that he is handicapped affect how he perceives people and the things around him. Carver illustrates this when the husband observes, "The blind man has another taste of his drink. He lifted his beard, sniffed it, and let it fall. He leaned forward on the sofa. He positioned his ashtray on the coffee table, then put the lighter to his cigarette. He leaned back on the sofa and crossed his legs at the ankles" (1057) He did this just as anyone could have done. He doesn’t let the fact that he is

“I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (99) the narrator tells us in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. An old friend of the narrator’s wife, Robert, is coming to visit them at their home. The narrator is not at all pleased with this situation and lets us know it from the beginning. Throughout the story, the narrator begins to see the blind man in a different light and his mind-set begins to change to admiration.

In the beginning of the story the narrator is completely disgusted at the thought of a blind man being in his house because of all the false things he’s heard about people who can’t see. Peoples perceptions change rapidly once they get to know someone, and in this case when the narrator got to know Robert the blind man, he realized that he

Carver uses irony to show that the narrator, does not know his wife. He feels “sorry for the blind man” who had never seen his wife, unaware of his own 'blindness' to his wife's need for emotional intimacy. When the wife shares her poetry, about “what she had felt” he is uncomfortable and unable to give her an honest reaction.”I didn't think much of the poem. Of course, I didn't tell her that” . The deep emotional connection that Robert and his wife enjoyed is beyond the narrator's understanding. The narrator's revelation that “Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep. …. When I did go to sleep, I had these dreams. Sometimes I’d wake up from one of them, my heart going crazy”, tells us that he cannot

However, as the story progresses, the narrator slowly begins to accept Robert’s condition. After Robert arrives home with the wife, the three of them sit down for a drink. The narrator judges Robert silently, but he is polite in honor of his wife. I found that the dinner scene was important because it is where the narrator begins to see more to Robert than just a disability: “The blind man right away located his foods, he just knew where everything was on his plate. I watched with

The husband first begins to open up to Robert when he watches with "admiration" as the blind man eats his food. He begins to see Robert as an independent man that has learned to live life despite his disability. There is a moment of connection when they all three finally begin the meal and he describes them as if they were all the same, eating the same way, intently and "seriously" (351). The husband asks to share a joint with Robert when his wife is not present, showing an indication of trust or maybe cockiness (352). Though shocked of her husband's actions, the wife joins in when she returns. When the wife has passed out between them, he commences to enjoying Robert's presence. When Robert wishes to stay up with him, listening to the television, the husband makes the

The narrator is pre-judgemental towards all people who are blind, whether or not he has met them. He believes all blind people are the same as those he has watched in movies. The narrator perception of the blind is that they “moved slowly and never laughed” and when they went out “they were led by seeing eye-dogs” (Carver 104). The movie industry creates a false image of the blind, which leads to the narrator’s assumptions. However, the blind are not all the same, just like how everyone else in the world are not the same. People are designed to be different in their personalities, thoughts, looks and much more. The narrator’s ideas of Robert are based off of false conceptions and this changes his attitude towards Robert. The narrator already has strong feelings towards Robert before meeting him