Cathedral By Raymond Carver

3 Pages 702 Words

“Cathedral”
Raymond Carver
While this story is clearly about prejudice and stereotypes associated with blindness, and about the narrator being blind too the deeper things in life, one of the most intriguing parts to me involved the relationship between the narrator and his wife. The visit of his wife’s friend, Robert, clearly brought out the insecurities in the narrator, about himself and about his relationship with his wife. One way we see this is that he takes a very long time, pages, demonstrating how close his wife and Robert are. When she brings Robert into the house, the narrator says, “She was beaming. She had this blind man by his coat sleeve.” Also, Robert says, “Do I look distinguished, my dear?” And the narrator adds, “...the blind man said to my wife.” While he doesn’t outright state that it upsets him, he seems to be implying it. After dinner, the narrator says, “Robert and my wife sat on the sofa. I took the big chair.” Again, he merely states the facts, and doesn’t actually say that it bothers him, but I believe it clearly does.
Also, the narrator clearly feels jealous that she felt inspired to write a poem about an experience she had with Robert, since she only writes poems when something really important happens. His insecurity worsens when she shows extra attention to Robert. At one point, the narrator says, “The blind man filled his ashtray and my wife emptied it.” In the next paragraph, he says, “My wife heaped Robert’s plate with cube steak, scalloped potatoes, green beans.” A bit later, she tells Robert to make himself comfortable. He replies, “I’m comfortable.” She says, “I want you to feel comfortable in this house.” And he again replies, “I am comfortable.” She seems to give quite a bit of extra attention to Robert.
I believe the narrator felt that Robert was intruding on what he felt was a private relationship. The history that his w...