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The Cathedral

            The beginning of the story talks about the relationship between the blind man and the wife. By the end of the story we see how it now focuses on the relationship between the blind man and the husband. The husband's attitude towards the blind man starts out as resentful. I think he seems jealous of the relationship that his wife shares with the man. There are many instances which he points out; when the blind man touches her face, her poems and the many tapes she sends to him, and the conversations they have inside the house in which he feels excluded. It is also stated in the first paragraph that the husband is not comfortable having a blind man to the house. At first I expected the story to be solely of the blind man's visit to the house, and the interactions that would take place. I think a major turning point in the story occurs when the blind man and the husband are left alone while the wife changes. The husband is at first uncomfortable, but once the two of them begin smoking we see their relationship begin to change into one that is more personal. The husband now seems to enjoy the man's company and is gaining a better understanding of him. We are beginning to see a turn around in his attitude, as opposed to that which it was in the beginning. Another interesting relationship which is presented is the one between the husband and wife. Not once in the story do we hear him say her name. He continually refers to her as "my wife", which I think suggests a distance between them. Robert on the other hand, was the only character to be given a name. I wondered why would the author did this?.
             Throughout the beginning of the story I was also wondering in what way the title would play into everything. It is not until the end that any reference is brought up. I think that the title "Cathedral" is in some way representing faith and belief. It begins that the husband cannot seem to describe a cathedral to the blind man.


Essays Related to The Cathedral

1. Cathedral by Raymond Carver

... character. It is also possible for an image to become symbolic in a story. In "Cathedral," the controlling image is the cathedral. The cathedral moves from the title of the collection, to the title of the story, to the flickering image on the narrator's television, to the brown paper bag on which the narrator draws a cathedral, to finally, the wide screen of the narrator's imagination. A cathedral is a human construction, but a construction designed to provide a space for communion between humans ... moment of epiphany, the reader's experience of reading "Cathedral" suddenly seems to pa...

  • Word Count: 11148
  • Approx Pages: 45
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Speyer Cathedral Germany

... the cathedral (1689). The effects were devastating to the western part of the nave and the late Gothic elements were destroyed by the fire. In the years after its destruction, only the eastern part of the church was lastingly secured and used for services. It was not until 1778 that the cathedral was restored after the reconstruction of the Romanesque nave and the erection of a Baroque west end under the direction of Franz I. M. Neumann. In 1794, the cathedral ... was again ravaged by French revolutionary troops.After the Palatinate was passed to Bavaria in 1816, the Bavarian kings orde...

  • Word Count: 1773
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. St John The Divine Cathedral

... granted a charter for the Cathedral in 1873 and 14 years later, Bishop Potter and the Cathedral Trustees approved the purchase of the land where the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum had formerly been. With the charter granted and the location of the cathedral decided, Potter began the search for an architectural design that would do justice to the mission of the cathedral project. In 1888, the Trustees sponsored a contest for the design of the Cathedral. The chosen design was submitted ... by the firm of Heins and LaFarge of ... ...

  • Word Count: 1260
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Etheldreda and the Shrine Architecture of Ely

... concepts of liturgy were part of the new presbytery. The passage highlighted in the dedication of Northwold's presbytery was from Revelation, hailing the New Jerusalem, the overarching symbol for the cathedral. In addition, the Cult of the Virgin Mary, the queen of Heaven influenced the architecture. The connection between Mary and Ely's "royal " saint is expressed in the bosses of the high vault. The central vault is the Coronation of the Virgin; the virgin is crowned by Christ ... , presides over the whole Heavenly City and Etheldreda, enthroned as queen and saint ... ...

  • Word Count: 4695
  • Approx Pages: 19
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Literary Analysis: Cathedral by Raymond Carver

... describe what he sees. Robert gets a bright idea and tells the narrator to find paper and a pen. The narrator brings the requested items and returns to him. They sit on the floor. Robert puts his hand on the narrator's hand, the one holding the pen, and tells him to start drawing. The narrator gets into it, and starts drawing the cathedral with Robert's hand on his. After a while Robert checks ... the drawing with his fingers, and tells the narrator he's on the right track. Then they ... resume. The narrator's wife wakes up and can ... ...

  • Word Count: 3978
  • Approx Pages: 16
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Architectural Analysis of Chartres Cathedral

... in Paris was the inspiration for the rest of the cathedral. The walls, piers, and flying buttresses expanded into what became the structure that supports the high-ceilinged vaults and colossal windows. Inside, the luminosity of the stained glass fills the entire church. The copper roof and mismatched towers are the hallmark of Chartres. The relation of the west front to the towers was altered in the previous Romanesque era due to the cathedral's unsteady foundations. The front was ... originally much farther back, but the ... ...

  • Word Count: 1621
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Murder in the Cathedral

... a secular society and implies that salvation via god is the best way possible, especially in times of depression and political tension. Despite the vast contrast between "Murder in the cathedral" and other more orthodox dramas during the decade, the drama was well received. This was no mean feat as the orthodox dramas of the time were based more on the themes of comedy and romance rather than psychological and ... place in a world that had thought it was finally in an age of peace and prosperity, of course after squalor of the depression. The mass population in the 1930's were repelled ...

  • Word Count: 1349
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Character Analysis - Cathedral by Raymond Carver

... ; they had dinner together and watched television, but still did not have much of a conversation. Towards the end of the story, both Robert and "Bub", cooperate to sketch a cathedral, which turned out to be something more meaningful to the narrator. As the story starts, the character of the spouse has an antagonistic identity. He needs sympathy, is biased, and is envious of his wife's kinship ... . "Go ahead, Bub, draw," he said (Page 97). While they draw the cathedral together, the husband, with eyes closed and pen on paper, leads the blind man's hand over what he imagines the contours o...

  • Word Count: 887
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. A comparison of Shiloh and Cathedral

... they've taken each other for granted so long that now they no longer knew each other. Each of the husbands have different catalysts that bring about the realization for them. In "Cathedral", the wife's friend, Robert's visit, forces the narrator to see that someone else has the intimacy with his wife that he should. In "Shiloh", Leroy's accident that has him homebound and with lots ... needs to be addressed neither of them can bring themselves to approach the other with the subject after such a long period of silence. One of the biggest differences between the two stories is the way the ...

  • Word Count: 521
  • Approx Pages: 2

10. Notre Dame Cathedral

... should have organized this whole thing, but since Pope Pius VII was attending, there were no objections. During the Commune of 1871, the Cathedral was nearly burned by the Communards. Some stories say that a huge mound of chairs were set on fire in its interior. Luckily, Notre Dame survived ... when Paris was liberated during World War II, General de Gaulle rushed to the cathedral after his return, to pray in thanksgiving. Excavations under the parvis have revealed a lot of Notre Dames history from the Gallo-Roman times to the 19th century. There are lots of visible traces of Roman rampar...

  • Word Count: 853
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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