Cathedral by Raymond Carter is a story about a man (the narrator of the story), his wife, and her longtime friend Robert, who is blind. Robert is coming to visit the man's wife. Robert's wife, Beulah, had just recently died and he is visiting his dead wife's relatives in Connecticut. The narrator is not enthusiastic about this visit from his wife's friend. At the beginning of this short story, the tone of the narrator is bitterness and ignorance. His tone moves to enlightenment by the conclusion. This dinner party will break down the barriers between the blind and those who have full use of his or her eyes.
Within the first two paragraphs of the story, the narrator describes how Robert and his wife met and continued their relationship over several years within the first two paragraphs of this short story. The narrator is bitter about the relationship between Robert and his wife. He is especially disturbed or bothered by the level of intimacy between the two. The narrator's wife and Robert communicated with each other via taped letters. His wife shared every detail of her life with Robert including moving from base to base, divorce from her childhood sweetheart, and an attempted suicide. On her last day at work with the blind man, she allowed him to "see" her by permitting him to touch her face and neck. At this point in the short story more bitterness is displayed by the narrator. This bitterness seems to be about a poem written about the experience! .
The narrator displays his ignorance regarding the blind and his or her limitations in several instances throughout the story. He first admits that his knowledge of the blind is limited to images that he had seen in the movies. He described the blind as people who move slow and never smile or laugh. The man's wife gives him more information about Robert after he suggests they go bowling together. His wife mentions that Robert was married to a woman named Beulah, who the narrator thought was a "Negro" (Carver, p.
