Raymond Carver

[1938 – 1988]

¤   Cathedral   ←[read]   ⇓    Listen 

•  Plot Overview

The narrator says that his wife’s blind friend, whose wife has just died, is going to spend the night at their house. He is not happy about this visitor and the man’s blindness unsettles him. He explains that his wife met the blind man ten years ago when she worked for him as a reader to the blind in Seattle. He says that on the last day of her job there, the blind man touched her face and she wrote a poem about the experience. The narrator then describes his wife’s past. She married her childhood sweetheart and became an officer’s wife. 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.

The narrator’s wife goes to pick up the blind man at the train station as the narrator waits at the house. The wife introduces the narrator to the blind man, whose name is Robert. They all sit in the living room. He pours scotch for the lot, and they talk about Robert’s trip. Robert smokes several cigarettes.  They sit down for dinner and eat ravenously, not speaking, eating so much that they are dazed. After dinner, they go back to the living room to drink more. 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. When Robert asks him questions, he makes only short responses. The narrator then turns on the television, irritating his wife, who goes upstairs to change clothes.

The narrator offers Robert some pot, and they have some smoke. His wife joins them when she comes back, but she immediately falls asleep. The narrator changes the channel and asks Robert if he wants to go to bed. Robert says he’ll stay up with him so that they can do some talking. There is a program about the Middle Ages on television; Robert says he likes learning things. When the TV speaker doesn’t describe what’s happening, the narrator tries to explain to Robert what’s going on. The TV speaker begins talking about cathedrals, showing different ones in different countries. 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.