Cathedral In Raymond Carver’s Cathedral, the reader is introduced to the narrator of the story who is anticipating the dreaded arrival of his wife’s friend Robert. Robert isn't just an ordinary friend of the Narrators Wife he is visually impaired and this impairment is actually how the two of them met. From the beginning of the story, the Narrator makes it clear that he has negative feelings of the coming of Robert by first saying how he wasn't “Enthusiastic about the visit.” (Cathedral 1) The cause of this negative anticipation is not easily seen at first but there are many examples in the story that back up that the cause is Jealousy. When Robert arrives, the narrator immediately begins to show small signs of jealousy of the relationship
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A reason for the Narrator thinking about this is that there could be a potential threat in his eyes to the marriage of him and his Wife. A reason for this is that the Narrator describes that in his wife’s last marriage she left her husband because she was lonely. As a result the Narrator may think that the relationship of his Wife and Robert is more than just a friendship. Another sign of the jealousy in the story is when the Narrator says “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me.”(Cathedral 5) The key term in this quote is that he says finally which implies that he thinks that she is giving more attention to Robert than he …show more content…
He from the first sentence shows how he feels about Robert by referring to him as “this Blind man,” rather than “the Blind man.” (Cathedral 1) This is is significant because according to Polly Rose Peterson, the word this in literature means “a word used to indicate distance, in a metaphoric way.” Peterson describes how this brings a “closeness” between the narrator and the reader, but creates an “emotional remoteness” between the Narrator and Robert. (Psycological Distance in Cathedral) This is shown in the story when the narrator says “his being blind bothered me,” it shows that he is placing a barrier between the two characters by their differences.( Cathedral
A reason for the Narrator thinking about this is that there could be a potential threat in his eyes to the marriage of him and his Wife. A reason for this is that the Narrator describes that in his wife’s last marriage she left her husband because she was lonely. As a result the Narrator may think that the relationship of his Wife and Robert is more than just a friendship. Another sign of the jealousy in the story is when the Narrator says “My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man and looked at me.”(Cathedral 5) The key term in this quote is that he says finally which implies that he thinks that she is giving more attention to Robert than he …show more content…
He from the first sentence shows how he feels about Robert by referring to him as “this Blind man,” rather than “the Blind man.” (Cathedral 1) This is is significant because according to Polly Rose Peterson, the word this in literature means “a word used to indicate distance, in a metaphoric way.” Peterson describes how this brings a “closeness” between the narrator and the reader, but creates an “emotional remoteness” between the Narrator and Robert. (Psycological Distance in Cathedral) This is shown in the story when the narrator says “his being blind bothered me,” it shows that he is placing a barrier between the two characters by their differences.( Cathedral