Imagery

Cathedral

The imagination is powerful - it is what makes all progress possible and it is what separates humans from other living creatures . With the imagination we can conceive things and from there create things . Thus creativity begins and ends with the imagination . In Raymond Carver 's story Cathedral , the concept of imagination is present . The story deal with a lot of imagining on the part of the protagonist and the persona - the I ' in Cathedral ' narrates the story sharing his thoughts and perceptions , of the way he imagines things to be p

Taking into account the title of the story it is possible to draw a parallel between the symbol of Cathedral and marriage life . Cathedral is a symbol of marriage consecrated by the church , which should be happy and full of love and understanding , but in contrast to this fact Cravens portrays unhappy marriage which is far from an ideal union between a man and a woman . The husband cannot describe cathedral ' and its meaning to a blind man , which could be interpreted in the way that he does not know what the happy marriage and true love means . In the "Cathedral " a self-insulated figure of husband who is far from universal virtues is dramatic , and caused pain to everyone near him Carver 's primary purpose of this symbol is to tell not simply what the husband did when met Robert , but how Robert 's blindness affected him- what he felt and why he felt it

In Cathedral , readers are presented with only three characters , the story told in the point of view of the main character who remained unnamed all throughout . The story centers on the arrival of the protagonist 's wife 's friend , Robert , who is a blind man . From the main character 's tone , we can already infer that he is uneasy with this visit , and when he does meet Robert he shares his stereotypical view of a blind man , and how Robert does not fit this image , and how he wished Robert wore glasses at least to conceal his eyes . The main character also has a lot of imaginings and opinions - about Beulah , Robert 's wife for example

The main character imagines that Beulah must have led a miserable life having been married to a blind man , because he thought , a blind man cannot give his wife the smallest compliments about how she looks among other things . Ironically , when Robert asks him to describe a cathedral the main character finds it difficult to do so , even though he has just been watching a show featuring all kinds of cathedrals from all over the world . Robert then asks him to draw with him - and he did . It was at that moment that the main character was forced to look at what is really a cathedral and imagine it so he could construct it on . In doing so , in letting the blind man 's hand ride his , the main character 's presumptions begin to melt as he...