The short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is about a blind man named Robert whose wife has recently passed. He made a visit to spend the night with his old friend and her husband. The narrator of the story is not happy about the visit from Robert. The narrator is an insensitive, superficial, cocky middle aged man. He thinks that blind people are sad, depressing and unable to live fulfilling lives.
“We paused over a snapshot of Ted Lavender, and after a while Jimmy rubbed his eyes and said he’d never forgiven himself for Lavender’s death. It was something that would never go away, he said quietly” (27). Cross believes that because he was so obsessed with his fantasy of Martha and the life they might lead after the war, he was negligent. Therefore, Cross sees Lavender’s death as the result of his negligence. His confession to O’Brien, years later, testifies to his intense feeling of guilt about the incident.
Morality aside, she “[walks] through her husband as if he were a ghost” (26), completely disregarding his emotions. Another example of adultery in the novel is Gatsby’s relationship with the married Daisy Buchanan. He finally reunites with his dream girl after five years of separation, however, Tom eventually learns of his wife’s betrayal, “I stared at him[Wilson] then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before…” (124) He is enraged at the news and sees no justification in Daisy’s actions despite his own unfaithfulness. Tom and Daisy’s disloyalty further projects their lack of respect and
The Narrator, at the outset of the story, looks down upon the blind, seeing their disability as making them inferior to him. His interactions with Robert throughout the course of his visit turn that assumption on its head. The Narrator’s wife shares a special relationship with Robert. Years before the story takes place, the wife started working for Robert, reading to him. The two formed a strong friendship that carried on throughout the years, culminating in a special experience in which the blind man touched the wife’s face in order to more intimately get in touch with her.
The opening of the story begins with a thought of the stay of a blind man, Robert. The narrator goes on to admit his discontent about the visit: “He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (314). In the story, it is evident that the narrator was ignorant to many facets of life. He creates a world in which he could place his thoughts, his feelings, and ultimately his innermost being.
Cathedral How do you explain a cathedral to a blind man? The narrator says that his wife’s blind friend, whose wife has just died, is going to spend the night at their house. He isn't looking forward to the blind man's visit because he says his presence will be uncomfortable. The article "Psychological Distance in Raymond Carver's Cathedral" by Polly Rose Peterson, analyzes the short story by noting the grammatical aspects of the story's narration. Demonstrative and possessive pronouns are words that create the "psychological distance" between the narrator and the characters.
Later in the poem, Hughes accuses his wife of abandoning her family. The repetition of “you” in the lines “unravelled your marriage, left your children echoing like tunnels in labyrinth, left your mother a dead-end” emphasises the immensely accusatory tone of the poem. These accusations in The Minotaur show that Hughes puts all blame for their failed marriage onto his wife, and is not taking any of the responsibility. Hughes’s view of Plath is a conflicting perspective to society’s view of the couple’s relationship. How Hughes portrays his conflicting perspective
From the beginning of the story he always identified Robert as “THIS BLIND MAN” (103). He constantly talks bad about Robert for a while in the story. When Robert is over to the house the narrator immediately notices how much attention his wife is giving to him and it made him act very dry toward Robert. All was bad with the narrator and Robert in the beginning, but after a while they started talking and got to know each other a little better because after all Robert was like a stranger to the narrator. At one point the narrator’s wife became sleepy in the later parts of the night and dosed off so that led to Robert and the narrator to have alone time to bond with each other.
English Composition 1003-10 25 September 2011 The Blind Leading the Blind After first reading Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” one could easily get the impression that the narrator is a closed-minded jerk. After reading the story a couple more times and really considering the position the narrator is put in, I began to realize he wasn’t very closed-minded at all. He was blinded by jealousy. Because society perpetuates the idea that men must be territorial in relationships, the narrator felt that he must do anything in his power to make sure his wife was not ok with a strange man coming to his home. The narrator’s wife observes, “You don’t have any friends.
Unfortunately the only way he knows how to help her it by treating her as a medical patient or as an object and not as a person who needed love, not just care. By doing this he aids to her mental decent, the last thing he meant to do. The evidence as to how much he truly loved his wife is shown at the end when he finally breaks in on his wife, and is so shocked and overcome by sadness that he faints. Unfortunately this point in the story also illustrates how far gone the narrator is, moving past her husband without recognizing him. In fact she even complains about “that man” and having to “creep over him” as she makes her