It is Sunday morning, and the noise of hundreds of people walking around the cathedral is heard around the square. The cathedral is magnificent, it rises around two hundred feet in the air with menacing gargoyles and marvelous stained glass windows. Cathedrals are mainly used as a divine symbol, but in Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” he uses the cathedral to represent the relationship between the narrator and his wife. In his story Carver shows that the narrator is a very jealous and bitter person who, often, overlooks his marriage, and does not try to build a better relationship with his wife. Once the wife’s blind friend, Robert, comes to visit, he gives the narrator a new way to look at their marriage. This gives the narrator a chance to see inside himself, for the first time, to see what he has missed out on in the marriage. The narrator is a very jealous man, and is not very happy that his wife’s blind friend is coming to visit, “[a] blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver). This shows how shallow the narrator is. Even though this blind man is a very close friend to the narrator’s wife the narrator is too jealous. He does not even try to build a relationship with his wife’s friend, which is only a start in showing how dysfunctional the marriage is. Even though the narrator is supposed to love and try to get along with her friends he does not make the effort of even trying to accept her friend coming over for a short visit. To further show how the narrator’s relationship with his wife is strained they argue about her friend coming to stay with them, “[i]f you love me," she said, "you can do this for me. If you don't love me, okay. But if you had a friend, any friend, and the friend c... ... middle of paper ... ... who he truly is and what his wife means to him by drawing this church. He knows that he has treated his wife wrong and he has overlooked very many aspects of his life, but since Robert has helped him, the narrator can now truly see. To conclude, Carver uses the narrator’s, metaphorical, blindness to describe how he overlooks so many different aspects of his life, most importantly his marriage. The narrator finally learns to disregard the physical aspects of his marriage and others appearances because there is always a deeper meaning. Carver uses Robert as a guide, even though he is blind, he can read people and uses his other senses to see them, how they truly want to be seen not just by physical appearances. Robert helps the narrator see the error of his ways, to save the couples’ marriage. Works Cited Raymond. "Cathedral". n.p., n.d., Web. 25 February 2014.
Carver tells the story in first person of a narrator married to his wife. Problems occur when she wants a friend of hers, an old blind man, to visit for a while because his wife has died. The narrator's wife used to work for the blind man in Seattle when the couple was financial insecure and needed extra money. The setting here is important, because Seattle is associated with rain, and rain symbolically represents a cleansing or change. This alludes to the drastic change in the narrator in the end of the story. The wife and blind man kept in touch over the years by sending each other tape recordings of their voices which the narrator refers it to being his wife's "chief means or recreation" (pg 581).
The narrator is not a religious man. He even makes fun Christianity: “”Now let us pray” […]. My wife looked at me, her mouth agape. “Pray the phone won’t ring and the food doesn’t get cold””. The word agape has a double meaning. It does not only mean that her mouth is open but it also means a love feast that is similar to the Holy Communion. The dinner scene which the quote is from cannot be anymore far from the Holy Communion. The dinner scene is savage and almost animal where the Holy Communion is sacred and pure. The narrator can therefore not be seen as a Christian but he when he is drawing the cathedral he gets an epiphany. An epiphany is something a lot of people seek ought in a cathedral because of its closeness to God. The cathedral is therefore not a symbol for Christianity but the realization you can get in a cathedral. In the beginning the narrator is narrow-minded and he is not happy about that he should spend time with a blind man but in the end he changes: “But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything “it’s really something” I said.” The narrator connects with Robert and he can put himself in his place. He gets insight on how wonderful the world can be when you can “see” other people’s physical flaws but are blind to them. The narrator gains confidence and a new friend in
The narrator’s wife knew Robert for a long time because she used to work for him and his wife had died so she was the one who was taking care of him since he was all alone. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit” (Carver 2) said the narrator. The narrator did not like the blind man because he was extremely close with his wife and they were always sending each other tapes in the mail to keep in touch. Since the narrator was not such a big fan of the blind man, he did not understand why it was such a important time when Robert had asked to touch his wife’s face during her last day working with him. She was working with him all summer but he was blind so he did not even know what she looked like so when he touched her face, she wanted to write a poem about it since it was an important time during her summer job helping him. A while after the narrators wife worked with Robert, they ended up communicating again and she sent him a recording of her talking about her recent life. “She loved her husband but she didn’t like it where they lived and she didn’t like it that he was a part of the military-industrial thing” (Carver 2). The narrator was getting jealous of this relationship between the two of them because it seemed to be going better then his and his wife’s relationship. Since the blind man moved into their house for a period of time,
The protagonist in “Cathedral,” Bub, is a man who has several defining characteristics. Bub is insecure, insensitive, and ignorant. This is clearly shown in Bub’s relationships with his wife and Robert. Bub’s insecurities are blatantly shown when he comments on his wife’s ex-husband:
In the story, the narrator exemplifies ignorance when presented with the reality of life. Likewise, his ignorance prevents him from seeing life beyond the scope of the physical element. The narrator is consumed with the influence of media and society in viewing the realities of life. “ And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. “(78) The narrator's ideology of reality was formed by media and society. In the context of “Cathedral” media and society portrayed successful individuals as ones with various materialistic and physical attributes. Likewise, throughout his narration, his focus is on the physical and materialistic aspects of life. “ The man she was going to marry at the end of the summer was in officer's training school. He didn’t have any money, either.” The narrator is incompetent to recognize that relationships rely on deep emotional attachment, therefore, he has a difficult time to comprehend the relationship between his wife and the old ...
... on his interaction and communication with others. In terms of the tone of the story, it seemingly conveys the positive messages. In Cathedral, instead of monologue as in A Clean Well-lighted Place, the narrator is more likely talking to us, trying to keep us amused and engaged. Underneath the wisecracks, readers can hear a tone of sincerity and positive attitudes towards life. Though the narrator makes jokes of the blind man initially, he shows respect and do what Robert asks him to do as the story continues.
The central aspect of Carver’s story is the significant irony between that of the nameless narrator and the blind man. From the start, the narrator appears to have to it all – shelter, food, a loving wife, and the overlooked gift of vision. With all of this though, he lacks internal depth. He is a simple, uneducated, egotistical man who unknowingly has limitations in sight. “I’ve never met, or personally known, anyone who was blind” (Carver, ). Of course he is physically able see the world around him, but he doesn’t realize how little of the world he truly perceives as his prejudice tendencies cloud his outlook on life and the people in it. The world through his eyes is very black and white with no shades of gray. This is ironic as one would think this man’s life is (or should be) full of meaning and significance compared to that of the blind who, in contrast, is open to ideas and experiences even while lacking the physical ability to see. Through this irony, Carver attempts...
The cathedral represents more than just a fancy hundred year old building, it also represents sight. Before the narrator and Robert go through their spiritual connection, the narrator’s life was pretty much black and white, he could see and Robert could not. However, when Robert asks the narrator to describe to him what a cathedral looks like, the narrator found that he was unable to form the words to fully describe what it looked like. “You’ll have to forgive me…” the narrator stated, “But I can’t tell you what a cathedral looks like. It just isn’t in me to do it” (Carver, pg.527). Unable to form the words to describe the cathedral, Robert suggests an alternative for the narrator to try. Up until this moment in the story the narrator was not a spiritual man, of course, that is until he began to draw. The real moment of symbolism however, was not until Robert placed his hand upon the narrators, helping to guide and feel the shapes of a cathedral through the narrator’s own interpretation. By opening up to Robert, and experiencing the moment of true sight the narrator was finally able to “see” something he had previously not been able to,
Through a blind man, both the reader and the narrator of Cathedral discover how merely looking with your eyes and really seeing are two very different things. The blind man, Robert, though not able to physically see, has a more detailed and more understanding view of the world than the narrator does. This narrator, whom we know only as the nameless husband, views life in a shallow, superficial way. As the story goes on, it becomes clear who has the more comprehensible vision of life and of the world.
The ability of both men (Bub and Robert) to perceive situations provides contrasting imagery. The author utilizes both men’s understanding of “sight”, but most importantly their relationship with Bub’s wife. This is shown when Bub recollects the time his wife convinced him to listen to one of Robert’s tapes. Bub tells us that the tape started off as “a few minutes of harmless chitchat” (Carver 518). This statement causes contrasting imagery in the reader, as he/she experiences this “harmless chitchat” from both men’s perspective. Bub believes that this “harmless chitchat” is unimportant. However, the reader knows that Bub and his wife are having relationship problems that can be improved through unconditional conversation. The tapes demonstrate that Robert, despite his blindness, has the ability to understand Bub’s wife on a deeper level because he truly listens. The relationship between Bub and his wife provides a mental image distilled in the readers mind. This is an image of a problematic relationship, which Bub ultimately ignores. The cathedral scene r...
This is evident within the trust issues that the narrator overcame during the story. The narrator tells readers about a poem his wife wrote where she describes the experience of Robert touching her nose and lips. Furthermore, the narrator states that he didn’t think much of the poem. This shows that the narrator is in essence, jealous of Robert’s interaction with her, as Robert was able to connect to her in a way that the narrator failed to comprehend initially. In drawing the cathedral, the narrator could finally understand the knowledge that his wife had attained many years before him and understood what it was that had drawn his wife to the blind man, thus removing any insecurities he may have had. In addition, the narrator’s wife also opened the narrator’s mind through her demonstration of trust. The narrator’s wife says to the narrator, “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, 3). In expressing this statement, the narrator’s wife shows that she does indeed love the narrator and is trying to prove this to him. It also demonstrates that the narrator himself is being reluctant in allowing the blind man into his home due to a lack of trust towards his wife. As Robert turns out to be an exceptional character to the narrator, he inevitably learns to trust his
Character is an imperative element to a story’s meaning. In order for a story to be captivating and perpetuate meaning, it must have sufficient character. Without the literary device of character, the story would disintegrate into a state of lifeless monotony. In Raymond Carver’s short story, “Cathedral”, the inclusion of character is noticeable throughout, and provides motivation for the reader to continue reading. “Cathedral” follows the narrator, who is the protagonist of the story, and his wife, and a blind man named Robert. The blind man, who is a friend of the narrator’s wife, is invited to stay with them for a period of time. As a result, the narrator displays jealously and resentment of
“Cathedral” consists of three individuals. The narrator is the main character, which the story revolves around. The wife of the narrator is the second character, who is the least relevant. The third character is the blind man, named Robert, who is a friend of the wife.
...rs, leaving the narrator and Rob to smoke a joint and watch television. The narrator tells Robert what’s going on in the show and asks him if he knows what a cathedral is, since the show is all about cathedrals. Although the narrator isn’t religious, he draws a cathedral for Robert, allowing his hand to be over his. This would allow him to understand what a cathedral looks like. However, when the wife wakes up and asks what they’re doing, she’s confused when the narrator says they’re drawing a cathedral. Robert asks the narrator to open his eyes, and he never does, claiming he feels weightless, suggesting to himself that he’s reached an epiphany. The narrator’s drawing allows him to see beyond “visibility.” He doesn’t understand exactly what he felt, but he knows it was a meaningful experience. Robert demonstrated that seeing involves a lot more than just looking.
In the short story Cathedral the main character does not have the greatest connection with his wife. He is jealous of her blind friend who visits, Robert, since he knows that they have always had a special bond that he lacks with her. When he tries to explain what a cathedral looks like to Robert he has a difficult time. But, when Robert insists that he draws it he has an epiphany. While he was drawing it, with his eyes shut, he knew that he was still in his house but he “didn’t feel like [he] was inside anything”. By him drawing the cathedral also reiterates the fact that he had an epiphany. A cathedral is a holly symbol, which means a place of worship, realization and rebirth. Moreover, when he is drawing the symbol of rebirth he realizes the connection that Robert has with his...