The Blind Heart in Carver’s Cathedral Essay -- Carver Cathedral Essays

The Blind Heart in Raymond Carvers Cathedral A persons ability to see is very much taken for granted as it is in Cathedral by Raymond Carver. Although the title suggests that the story is about a cathedral, it is really about two men who are blind, one physically, the other psychologically. One of the men is Robert, the blind friend of the narrators wife the other is the narrator-husband himself. The husband is the man who is psychologically blind. Carver dextrously describes the way the husband looks at life from a very narrow-minded point of view. Two instances in particular illustrate this. The first is that the husband seems to recall that the most important thing to women is being complimented on their looks the second is that he is unable to imagine his wifes friend Robert as a person, save as a blind man. Carver consistently characterizes the husband as the real blind man because he is ignorant of so many straightforward things in life. One of the first hints of the hus bands blindness is addressed early in the story when the husband thinks about the blind mans wife and says, Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one. A woman who could go on daylight after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved. A woman whose husband could never read the expression on her face, be it misery or something better. (1055) The husband seems to be saying that women need to be seen, that this is the most important or only important thing in their lives. He forgets that Robert can discover his wifes voice, smell her perfume, enjoy her personality, and touch her skin. According to Dorothy Wickenden Cathedral is a story about ignorance and vulnerability the deep-seated... ...is blind. He constantly disregards his sight which he takes for granted. The husband is so narrow-minded and content within his own world, he neglects to see the rest of the world. Marc Chenetien said it best A spark of hope in C athedral tends to give a potentially new agenda to stories whose ultimate promise seems to remain that blindness unavoidably undercuts all awakenings (30). Works Cited Allen, Bruce. Carver. Contemporary literary Criticism. Ed. Roger Matuz. New York Gale Research, 1989. 55103. Burgeja, Michael J. Carver. Short Story Criticism. Ed. Shelia Fitzgerald. Pasadena Salem Press, 1990. 823. Carver, Raymond. Cathedral The Harper Anthology of Fiction Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York HarperCollins, 1991. 1052-1063. Chenetien, Marc. Carver. Short Story Criticism. Ed. Sheila Fitzgerald. Pasadena Salem Press, 1990. 844.