Raymond Carver’s Cathedral is a seemingly straight forward short story telling of man who can see, a man who is blind, and the night they spend watching television after drinking and the narrator’s wife has fallen asleep. However, as the story goes on and is examined further, we find that it is full of themes, some more obvious than others, but all equally important when it comes to fully understanding the story.
The most obvious situation in this story, is the issue dealing with having sight versus being blind, and who is truly what in this story. On the surface, it is obvious; Robert is a literal blind man, and the narrator is a literal seeing man. But with the slightest bit of deeper reading it immediately becomes clear that Robert has …show more content…
Robert however, while being physically blind, turns out being able to physically “see” in his own way, and truly seeing more than Robert in a deeper way. Robert is able to see through touch, be it touching something with his own hands, like the narrator’s wife’s face, or the narrators hand as he draws the cathedral at the climax of the story; he has learned how to see in his own way despite his physical handicap. Not only that, but he shows that sight is not what makes you truly know and see a person. Robert loved his wife even though he never saw her, they had been married for eight years and even the narrator, only ever having heard the kind of love Robert and Beulah had from him wife, pictures Robert with Beulah, crying as she died. “…the blind man’s hand on her hand, his blind eyes streaming tears-…” (Carver 35). Robert also feels as if he knows the narrator well, just listening to tapes sent from his wife. The narrator only sees Robert as a blind man, it is difficult to separate him from his disability. Robert is able to truly know someone by what they are, rather than what he sees; he knows the person, what they love, hate, feel, …show more content…
We find out early in the story that the wife is the occasional poet. However, she only writes very few times throughout the year, “She wrote a poem or two every year, usually after something really important had happened to her.” (Carver 33). His wife uses this manner of art to try to describe these events in her life, events that seem to be far too important to attempt to describe speaking. She takes her time, taking quite a while to finish one of these poems, to make sure that there is no confusion and that her image and experience are totally clear to whoever is reading. Robert is the same when it comes to drawing; his go-to when the narrator is unable to explain the cathedral to him is to have the man draw it for him. Though it never specifically says that Robert himself draws, he is able to understand when he feels what the narrator means as their hands move together, “He found my hand, the hand with the pen. He closed his hand over my hand. “Go ahead, bub, draw.”” (Carver 41). They seem to both come to a deep understanding as the man draws, and through the art, though we never know exactly what it is that he draws, they are able to express themselves in ways words would never have been able too. Art brings these two seemingly opposite characters into a position where, even though one man is totally blind, they are
The most obvious situation in this story, is the issue dealing with having sight versus being blind, and who is truly what in this story. On the surface, it is obvious; Robert is a literal blind man, and the narrator is a literal seeing man. But with the slightest bit of deeper reading it immediately becomes clear that Robert has …show more content…
Robert however, while being physically blind, turns out being able to physically “see” in his own way, and truly seeing more than Robert in a deeper way. Robert is able to see through touch, be it touching something with his own hands, like the narrator’s wife’s face, or the narrators hand as he draws the cathedral at the climax of the story; he has learned how to see in his own way despite his physical handicap. Not only that, but he shows that sight is not what makes you truly know and see a person. Robert loved his wife even though he never saw her, they had been married for eight years and even the narrator, only ever having heard the kind of love Robert and Beulah had from him wife, pictures Robert with Beulah, crying as she died. “…the blind man’s hand on her hand, his blind eyes streaming tears-…” (Carver 35). Robert also feels as if he knows the narrator well, just listening to tapes sent from his wife. The narrator only sees Robert as a blind man, it is difficult to separate him from his disability. Robert is able to truly know someone by what they are, rather than what he sees; he knows the person, what they love, hate, feel, …show more content…
We find out early in the story that the wife is the occasional poet. However, she only writes very few times throughout the year, “She wrote a poem or two every year, usually after something really important had happened to her.” (Carver 33). His wife uses this manner of art to try to describe these events in her life, events that seem to be far too important to attempt to describe speaking. She takes her time, taking quite a while to finish one of these poems, to make sure that there is no confusion and that her image and experience are totally clear to whoever is reading. Robert is the same when it comes to drawing; his go-to when the narrator is unable to explain the cathedral to him is to have the man draw it for him. Though it never specifically says that Robert himself draws, he is able to understand when he feels what the narrator means as their hands move together, “He found my hand, the hand with the pen. He closed his hand over my hand. “Go ahead, bub, draw.”” (Carver 41). They seem to both come to a deep understanding as the man draws, and through the art, though we never know exactly what it is that he draws, they are able to express themselves in ways words would never have been able too. Art brings these two seemingly opposite characters into a position where, even though one man is totally blind, they are