Interaction With A Blind Man In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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A short story about a couple who interactions with a blind man, about the overly masculine presence of the narrator and his desire to the center of conversation, how the wife struggles with depression and lack of self confidence, and eventually pushes back and triumphs. Carver paints a mental image throughout Cathedral of how being close-minded and ignorant comes to bite the narrator in the end. From the beginning of the thought provoking short story, the narrator expresses his unhappiness and borderline jealousy over the fact that his wife has a close male companion, a blind man named Robert. He recalls a small portion of his wife’s personal history, remembering how she has been friends with Robert since her first marriage and how she had

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  • Summary of Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    486 Words  | 1 Pages

    He constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it seems” (363) about their relationship. Upon the arrival of his wife’s friend, the husband is ultimately uncomfortable around Robert because he does not know how to communicate with or act around him.

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  • Threatening Relationships in Carver’s Cathedral

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    The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert, the blind man, provokes the narrator’s insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten long years. During those years, they have exchanged countless voice tapes wherein they both tell each other what has happened in their respective lives. Because of this, the narrator feels that his wife has told Robert more than Robert needs to know. The narrator laments, "she told him everything or so it seemed to me" (1054). The narrator’s fear is somehow confirmed when Robert arrives and says that he feels like they have already met (1055). The narrator is left wondering what his wife has disclosed. This murky situation leaves the narrator feeling insecure, especially when he sees the warm interaction between his wife and Robert.

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  • Lack of Vision in Carver's Cathedral

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    The narrator’s prejudice makes him emotionally blind. His inability to see past Robert’s disability stops him from seeing the reality of any relationship or person in the story. And while he admits some things are simply beyond his understanding, he is unaware he is so completely blind to the reality of the world.

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  • Blindness in Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a result of his inability to relate with Robert, he thinks his behaviors are odd, and is unable to understand the relationship he has with his wife. His wife worked for this blind man many years ago, reading him reports and case studies, and organizing his "...little office" (Carver 98) in the county's social-service department. He remem¬ bers a story his wife told about the last day she worked for him. The blind man asked her if he could touch her face, and she agreed.

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  • Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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    Raymond Carver utilizes his character of the husband, who is also the narrator, in his short story "Cathedral." From the beginning of the story the narrator has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, has a narrow mind, is detached emotionally from others, and is jealous of his wife's friendship with a blind man named Robert. He never connects with anyone emotionally until the end of this story.

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  • An Analysis Of The Dialogue In Cathedral's Cathedral

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    All of the internal thoughts are from the husband, because he is also the narrator. Inside, the husband is pretty biased of the blind man, yet he is more against the blind man staying with them rather than being for it. The husband never thinks about why he does not feel comfortable having the blind man over, but by the way the wife is happy and smiling, I realized the husbands main reason was because of his own jealousy. During the whole story, the wife talks more to the blind man than she does her husband, and also shows more interest in the blind man. This makes me believe that internally the husband is jealous about all of the attention the blind man is getting from his wife. Later on through the story, especially at the end, the husband’s thoughts of the blind man completely change for the better about the blind man. He starts to see and feel like the blind man, and his whole prejudging and beliefs about the blind man and blind people in general completely shifts. When he draws the cathedral and feels the paper with his eyes closed, he understands what the blind man feels and how he sees the world in his mind. Being able to see what the blind man sees changes the husband’s mood completely. He being to realize that the blind man is much wiser than him, and that he is not just a threat to the husband’s marriage, but actually is just a good friend. When the husband and the blind man are alone and with their own

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  • Patience Over Prejudice: Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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    The blind man, however, greets these preconceptions with patience and equanimity, and the end result is a profound realization for the story’s narrator. Throughout “Cathedral”, Raymond Carver employs characterization and purposeful diction to juxtapose the bigoted narrator against the wise blind man in order to advance the underlying theme of the story: persistent empathy and understanding are the forces to end prejudice.

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  • Character Analysis Of Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    The narrator is uneasy with the thought of Robert staying in his house and believes that he is superior to the blind man. Even before an introduction is satisfied between the narrator and Robert, the narrator is a bit disturbed to have Robert staying in his house. Within the first paragraph of the story, the narrator’s agitation towards Robert is made apparent. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 33). The narrator assumes from Robert’s blindness that he is going to just be a nuisance to have to host because

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  • The Blind Husband In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    A great example of this is shown after dinner, when they all move into the living room to watch television. This is how the narrator acts when after they all move into the living room: "Robert and my wife sat on the sofa. I took the big chair. We had us two or three more drinks while they talked about the major things that had come to pass for them in the past ten years. For the most part, I just listened. Now and then I joined in". The narrator is not able to join in the conversation for a good amount of time because he is too uncomfortable. This is where jealousy may come into play. Robert and the wife had known each other for a long time. This may make the narrator feel like he is not important. The narrator and the wife do not even share a bedroom together. This shows that the wife and the narrator do not have a healthy marriage. The narrator’s discomfort is revealed through his actions. He shows that he does not know how to act around Robert because again he does not see Robert as a person, but only as a blind

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  • Positive Transformation In Cathedral, By Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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    During this story, the storyteller, who is bias, is drastically changed once a blind man Robert opens the narrator's eyes to understanding the deeper that means of the globe around him. The story primarily focuses on the storyteller and there for the approach Robert changes the narrator's perspective about the world and him. At the end of the story, Robert has a friend, no longer a hazard or an opponent. Absorbing that Robert is a good man, and that his spouse and Robert are just friends. It also presents an acquaintance in mutual, which is somewhat they seem absent. Bub might furthermore improvement a better relationship with his wife.

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  • The Character of the Husband in Raymond Carver's Story Cathedral

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the beginning of his tale, the husband is quite bland on the subject of love. This is present when he tells the part about his wife's first husband, even going as far as to say the man doesn't deserve to be named because "he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want" (348). When he tells of Beulah, Robert's wife, and her tragic death, he shows no compassion in mocking her for marrying a blind man. He even asks if the woman was a "Negro" because of her name. His materialistic views shine through when he feels actually pity for her because she could "never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one" (349). His lack of compassion for the tale of the blind man's marriage tells the reader that maybe the husband himself doesn't believe in love. When he refers to his wife's first husband as "this man who'd first enjoyed her favors" and "shrugs" when he thinks his wife is disappointed in his actions, it informs the reader he may look at relationships, even his own, as more of a business deal than a devotion of love (348, 350). His wry humor is major indication of his sarcastic character. He even makes a crack to his wife about the blind man befo...

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  • Blindness in Cathedral by Raymond Carver

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first paragraph, the narrator also reveals his ignorance. He believes that all blind people are based on only what he has seen in movies, "My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they are led by seeing-eye dogs “(104). The narrator was surprised when he noticed Robert was not like this. The narrator is also surprised when Robert lights a cigarette. He believes blind people don’t smoke because “they couldn’t see the smoke they exhaled” (108). The husband starts to feel more comfortable after this. The three of them sit down for dinner and the husbands is impressed with the how Robert is able to locate his food, cut with a knife, and eat properly. This is where the narrator’s outlook starts to undergo change.

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  • Imagery and Symbolism in Cathedral, by Raymond Carver

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    This story is about how the narrator is unable to see what life is really giving him and finds it through a blind man’s eyes, the friend of his wife. Cathedral is a touching story, in my opinion, as it reflects on what many of us, society, take for granted. It shows how important it is to give people a chance and to be able to see the true meaning of what surrounds us even if it is not important to our personal life. Throughout the short story, Carver uses several figurative language to expose the theme of the story.

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  • Problematic Relationships In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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    This disconnect is apparent throughout the short story, especially when the wife and the protagonist are talking about his wife’s blind friend, Robert, coming to visit. In this passage the unnamed protagonist nonchalantly states that he could take the blind man bowling. The protagonist’s wife responds to his crude comment with, “If you love me, you can do this for me. If you don’t love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend came to visit, I’d make him feel comfortable.” (Carver 107). The disconnect is clear because after the wife asks the protagonist to do this one thing for her out of love, the protagonist brushes off what she said and explains he would never have a blind friend staying at their house. The protagonist is most responsible for creating the problem within their relationship; his jealousy causes the disconnect experienced between the two. The protagonist spends much time reflecting on his wife and her past relationship with her ex-husband and her platonic relationship with Robert; therefore, showing his jealousy at her level of connection in her other relationships. When the protagonist talks about his wife's relationship with Robert, he uses short, disconnected sentences. This shortness of thought exemplifies, as Robert Clark notes, “The narration is driven by jealousy: the speaker has not achieved a meaningful connection with his wife the way Robert has” (Clark 109). This disconnect promoted by underlying jealousy is eventually resolved when the protagonist has an epiphany. As the protagonist is sitting with Robert watching a documentary about cathedrals, Robert asks the protagonist to explain what a

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  • Analysis of the Relationship of the Blind Man and the Husband

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    The husband's view on the world at the start of the story was a narrow one that was based on his ignorance, which prevented him from gaining understanding. His long held misconceptions, especially about blindness, defined his expectations about things he did not understand. For instance, when the husband found out that Robert was coming to stay, he disliked the idea of someone who was blind, let alone someone who he didn't know, coming to visit and the husband's "idea of blindness came from the movies." He saw the blind people as people who "moved slowly and never laughed." This was not the limit of his ignorance as it was further displayed by his constant referral of Robert as "the blind man" and his assumption of Robert's deceased wife being a black person based solely on the name of Beulah. This assumption display his bigotry is not limited to Robert's blindness and that differences that he did not understan...

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