Irony In Raymond Carver's Cathedral

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John Malcolm Prof. Winters English 123 31 January 2016 A blind man taught me how to see. Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” is a short story chock-full of irony. The story is presented from the point of view of the narrator, a jealous and somewhat bitter man, who remains nameless throughout. He is a man who has perfect eyesight, yet it is not until he meets a blind man, that he truly learns how to ‘see’. The Narrator comes across as a jealous and petty man. This can be seen especially when he is talking of his wife’s past. His wife made an attempt to take her own life, yet when he is narrating this, he seems to brush over the severity of what happened, and gets more caught up interrupting himself to make jealous remarks about his wife’s ex-husband, “Her officer – why should he …show more content…

When the narrator first introduces Robert he refers to him simply and somewhat rudely as “This blind man”. He narrates in quite a bitter tone when speaking of the relationship his wife and Robert had in the past, seemingly jealous of the connection they shared, for it is one deeper and more meaningful than the relationship the narrator shares with his wife. He feels pity for Robert’s wife, Beulah, as he fails to comprehend the bond that was shared between the two of them. The narrator’s own wife describes them as being “inseparable”, yet the narrator cannot understand a relationship being anything more than skin deep. It is ironic that Robert, being blind, is able to ‘see’ on a much deeper level and take away a greater understanding than the narrator, who has perfect eyesight. This is also shown when the narrator describes Robert touching his wife’s face, he seems convinced that she let him do something sexual to her when she “let him run his hands over her face”, as the narrator is again unable to understand the deeper meaning of things, in this case that touch may be intimate without being

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