"Cathedral" Questions

In this story the narrator is having his wife’s blind friend, Robert, over for a visit. His wife used to read to Robert for money and they have kept in touch over the years through audio tracks. . Robert is visiting the narrator’s wife because his wife recently died. The narrator is uncomfortable with Robert coming over because he doesn’t know what to do with a blind man. After Robert comes, it is very awkward for the narrator but over the course of the night, the narrator grows comfortable and starts to like and respect Robert. He turns on the TV and a show about cathedrals comes on. Robert asks the narrator to describe a cathedral to him but he can’t do it well so Robert suggests that he draw it. The narrator draws the cathedral while Robert follows his hand and then Robert tells him to close his eyes and continue drawing. After the cathedral is done, the narrator doesn’t want to open his eyes.

1.      The narrator was not looking forward to the visit because he has never been around a blind man and doesn’t know what to do with him. Everything he knows about blind people comes from television and he didn’t like what he saw. These feelings of unease shows that the narrator is naïve about the blind and very single-minded.

2.      It is possible to read that part as her being “seen” by Robert since he felt every inch of her face. Her writing poetry is related to her desire to be seen in the way that it shows how important it is to her. The narrator said that she wrote poetry after something important happened to her and that she tried to write a poem about Robert touching her face. This means that being “seen” by Robert and her desire to be seen was very important to her. Her attempt at suicide also has to do with her desire to be seen because she did it because she was lonely. Someone who wants to be seen doesn’t want to be alone.

3.      Receiving another’s friend means to make them as your friend as well. You do things with them that any other friend would do and make them comfortable and happy.

4.      I think that Robert saw Beulah as a person, emotionally and not physically. The way that Robert sees is deeper because anyone can look at a face but Robert knew Beulah well enough to know what she looked like on the inside and knew that she was beautiful.

5.      The narrator overs the dope because he feels that it would make him more comfortable and relaxed and Robert takes it because he hasn’t had it before. This reveals that they want to fit in together and not be so awkward around each other.

6.      The cathedral reveals that the culture thought that God was a great king that deserved a huge, fancy house to dwell in because if they didn’t believe that, they wouldn’t have spent all that money and labor into building cathedrals.

7.      The narrator has a hard time describing a cathedral because he only saw the physical aspect of it. When describing something, you need more than just a look sometimes. You need to describe what it feels like and how it makes you feel. The narrator can’t do this because he looks at everything on the surface and never looks deeper than that. What he sees with his eyes closed was freedom from material things and the world around him because he no longer felt as if he was inside something and was in complete openness.