"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver

     In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the narrator says that his wife’s blind friend is going to spend the night at their house. He isn’t happy about man and his blindness unsettles him. The wife met the blind man ten years ago when she was working for him as a reader to the blind in Seattle. The narrator describes his wife’s past, saying that she married her childhood sweetheart and became an officer’s wife. She became unhappy with her life, she tried to commit suicide one night by swallowing pills, but she survived. She and the blind man kept in touch by sending audiotapes back and forth to each other throughout her marriage, and she told everything to the blind man on tapes.


      Before they meet the friend the wife reminds him that the blind man’s wife, Beulah, just died and says to welcome the blind man into their home. The narrator inappropriately asks if Beulah was “Negro,”and her response was asking if the narrator was drunk. She then tells him more about Beulah. Beulah became the blind man’s reader after the narrator’s wife stopped working for him, and they eventually got married and unfortunately after eight years she died from cancer. The narrator thinks how awful it must have been for Beulah to know that her husband could never look at her.


        The narrator’s wife goes to pick up the blind man at the train station as the narrator waits at the house. When they arrive, he watches his wife laughing and talking with the blind man as she leads him by the arm to the house and is shocked that the blind man has a full beard. They are introduced to each other and we learn that the blind man’s name is Robert. They sit down for dinner and eat, not speaking, awkwardly until they finish. After dinner, they go back to the living room to drink more scotch where the wife and Robert talk about things that have happened to them in the past ten years, while the narrator occasionally tries to join in. He learns that Robert and Beulah had run an Amway distributorship and that Robert is a ham radio operator. The wife later goes upstairs to change clothes and is gone for quite awhile. The narrator then offers Robert some pot, and they smoke a joint. The wife joins them when she comes back saying she’s going to just sit with them on the couch with her eyes closed, but instead falls asleep. At this time the narrator changes the channel and asks Robert if he wants to go to bed, but Robert decides to stay up so they can talk some more. They begin to watch a program about the Middle Ages on television. The narrator asks Robert whether he has any idea what a cathedral looks like. Robert says he doesn’t and asks the narrator to describe one. The narrator tries, but he knows he doesn’t do a very good job. Robert asks him if he’s religious, and the narrator says he doesn’t believe in anything his reason for not describing the cathedral is because cathedrals are meaningless for him.


        Robert asks the narrator to find a piece of paper and pen, he and the narrator sit around the coffee table, and Robert tells the narrator to draw a cathedral. He puts his hand over the narrator’s hand, following the movement of the pen. The narrator draws and draws, getting wrapped up in what he’s doing. His wife wakes up and asks what’s going on and Robert answers that they’re drawing a cathedral. The wife doesn’t understand and they continue to draw the cathedral with their eyes closed and he goes through an experience that he knows he is in his home, but he feels like he is nowhere. In the end he doesn’t open his eyes to the picture and keeps his eyes closed.


       The story was really interesting and enjoying to read. You learn a lesson from this story and you realize that we are lucky to have all of our senses and to be able to see the beauty of the world as well as not be grateful when there are those who can’t have the same experience. This story was touching and really went in-depth with a lot of meaning when they both drew the cathedral and you can tell there was a lot of emotions and realization of a new way of seeing things. This story was great and it had a great meaning behind it between the blind guy and the narrator.




1. The narrator was not really happy to meet the blind man because the blindness makes him uneasy and that he jealous because he knows that his wife and the blind man has a strong relationship with his wife. His feelings reveal about his character is that he is the type to get jealous over his wife and that he doesn’t like blind people.


2. Yes I do believe it is possible to read the experience the narrator’s wife had of Robert touching her face as an experience of being “seen” by him because it is not uncommon for blind people to want to touch other peoples face to see them, that’s how they can visualize what you look like to them. Writing of poetry relates her desire to be seen because she is expressing her personal thought and ideas which relates to being seen in a way through her words. Her attempted suicide also relates to her desire to be seen because she how her emotions and struggles and what kind of person she can become when unhappy with her life, she is showing the world that she has been through rough patches in her life and was able to pull through and find happiness.


3. What it means to receive another’s friend is that you’re welcoming them with your best behavior and being nice to them. You’re treating them with respect they deserve and not annoying or talk negatively towards them because there your friends or family’s friend.


4. I think that Robert “saw” Beulah because they both were very much in love and where happy with each other. What it means, more deeply, to see and be seen is that Robert not only touched her physically but was also able to see her beauty through her soul by her lovingness towards Robert as well as their happiness together. He was able to see her inner beauty as well through her commitment and love knowing that her husband wouldn’t ever be able to see her physically.


5. The characters smoke pot to relax and just chill out. There is no specific reason they smoke it except that they want to get high and this doesn’t reveal any of their desire because the narrator and Robert just start to talk and stay up watching TV. This could reveal that the desire is that The blind man wants to talk to the narrator now that they are starting to feel comfortable with each other.


6. Churches reveal many things about the culture of God because it is a setting where there are murals, stain glass, carved objects that were considered holy and to tell a story relating to how great God is and this is because churches are beautifully built to show that it’s God’s house as well as have things relating towards religion and God’s culture from the bible.


7. The narrator has a difficulty describing the cathedral because they don’t mean anything to him and because he not a religious person. At the end of the story the narrator draws the cathedral in his head and sees that, but when he keeps his eyes closed he doesn’t feel like he is in anything when he knows he is inside his house in that moment he realizes what it feels like to be blind.