An Analysis of Cathedral by Raymond Carver

The narrator of the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver has never met someone who was blind until Robert came to visit. Robert has been a friend of the narrator 's wife for the past ten years and is spending the night because he has not seen her for such a long time, but this bothers the narrator. He does not regard a blind man as a normal person with whom he can relate with, and is extremely uncomfortable with the idea of having to socialize with one for an entire evening.
The narrator is stereotypical and uses these preconceptions to form an opinion of the blind man even though he has not yet arrived. This is plainly evident in the first paragraph when he states,
I wasn 't enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies.
In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to(184).

He believes that since blind individuals in the movies are slow and never laugh, then all blind people must be slow and never laugh. The narrator makes it apparent that he feels that the speed at which a blind man moves will have a negative effect on his personality. Also, the idea that the blind never laugh play 's a significant role towards the narrator 's opinion of Robert because he expects a very dull evening with a blind man who has no sense of humor. A further example of the narrator 's preconceptions is expressed when he says, "But he didn 't use a cane and he didn 't wear dark glasses. I 'd always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind. Fact was, I wished he had a pair"(187-88). Again, the narrator is concerned with trivial characteristics. Whether or not Robert carries a cane or 2 wears glasses should not have any bearing on the way in which others perceive him. Instead, the narrator expresses a desire for the blind man to have dark glasses so that he would not have to concern himself with a set of eyes that roam about uncontrollably. Another example of the narrator 's stereotypical attitude is evident when he explains; "I remembered having read somewhere that the blind didn 't smoke because, as speculation had it, they couldn 't see the smoke they exhaled. . . But this blind man smoked his cigarette down to the nubbin and then lit another one"(188). The narrator is naïve in thinking that all blind men would not smoke cigarettes because they could not see the smoke they exhaled. Robert has contradicted all of the preconceptions that the narrator has held towards blind people and yet he still is unable to consider Robert as a normal human being. The narrator is unable to comprehend how a blind man was able to find a female companion who was willing to tolerate his inability to see. Evidence of this occurs when he states, "They 'd married, lived and worked together-had sex, sure-and then the blind man had to bury her. All this without his having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like. It was beyond my understanding"(186). To think that a blind man could never marry is absurd. Obviously the narrator is preoccupied with the element of physical attraction and believes that love can not exist without it. This is further portrayed when he says, "A woman who could go on day after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved"(186). The narrator is oblivious to the fact that Robert 's relationship with his wife must have existed on a much deeper level than the relationship he has with his wife. 3
Robert has been a friend of the narrator 's wife for about ten years now and still, the narrator is unable to come to accept their relationship. It is as though he is jealous of the relationship his wife and Robert hold. "She and I began going out, and of course she told her blind man about it"(185). It is only natural for someone to inform another friend about a significant event that has occurred, and yet the narrator makes it sound as though it offended him. Another example of his inconsideration occurs when the narrator 's wife had left to go pick Robert up at the train station. "[M]y wife went to the depot to pick him up. With nothing to do but wait-sure, I blamed him for that…"(187). The narrator had the option to go with his wife, but he decided to stay home and wait for them to get back. He makes it seem as though it was unbearable for him to have to stay home by himself for such a short period of time. When they arrive, the narrator demonstrates that he is in no way looking forward to Robert 's visit. "I turned off the TV. I finished my drink, rinsed the glass, dried my hands. Then I went to the door"(187). He is in no hurry to meet his wife 's oldest and most cherished confidant.
Dramatic irony is defined as a difference between what is expected to happen, and what actually happens. Throughout the story, we can plainly view the narrator 's prejudice towards Robert and this is further emphasized by the fact that he does not once ever address Robert by his actual name. However, at the end of the story when the two men put their hands together in an attempt to draw a cathedral, there is a significant realization experienced by the narrator. "My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn 't feel like I was inside anything. ‘It 's really something, ' I said"(194). Everything that the narrator had heard, read, and seen of blind people could 4 not have prepared him for that moment at which he was finally able to come to terms with a disability that he considered uncomprehendable.

Works Cited
Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." An Introduction to literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto, William E. Cain. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 1997. 184-194.

Cited: Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." An Introduction to literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto, William E. Cain. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 1997. 184-194.