Cathedral | Quotes

The narrator is blunt about expressing his prejudice against blind people. The pun that occurs between the words blind and looked foreshadows a coming connection between the narrator and the blind man.

The narrator's wife told him that, 10 years ago, on the last day she worked for Robert, he'd asked if he could touch her face. They'd become good friends, and she agreed. As the narrator recounts this incident, he displays jealousy regarding what he suggests might have been a sexual undercurrent to the interaction.

The narrator describes the significance of his wife's audiotaped communication with Robert. His cynical, mocking tone demonstrates his dismissiveness of both her relationship with Robert and her poetry writing—the two means through which she shares her feelings.

The narrator tells his wife that because he doesn't have any blind friends, he won't ever inconvenience her by inviting a blind person for a visit. In reply, she pinpoints one major reason he is lonely and discontented.

The narrator, here characterizing Robert and Beulah's marriage, completely misses the point that their relationship went much deeper than physical appearance.

The narrator, perhaps really seeing his wife for the first time in years, voices a fear that his wife cares more for Robert than she cares for the narrator.

Although the narrator's wife and Robert are catching up on important events in the last 10 years of their lives, it's significant that she doesn't consider meeting and marrying the narrator to be important events. The omission suggests the depth of isolation between the narrator and his wife.

The narrator turns on the TV because the conversation seems to be slowing down. His wife's response suggests an irritation with the devices, technological and otherwise, the narrator employs to avoid real communication.

The narrator reveals the lack of physical, as well as emotional, intimacy in his marriage. This relationship contrasts with that of Robert and Beulah, who, through the 20-peso coin, remain connected even beyond death.

The narrator describes one internal manifestation of his disconnectedness: frequent sleeplessness and nightmares. Although the surface of the narrator's life appears content, his inner turmoil tells the real story.

As a foil or contrast to the narrator, Robert's intellectual curiosity is evident when he assures the narrator he'll be interested in the TV documentary about cathedrals.

Robert coaches the narrator as they draw a cathedral together, but the real lesson is one in communication. An uninhabited cathedral, like a home, is worthless. Importantly, habitation is not about physical presence, but about the relationships among the people. The narrator's home is physically but not emotionally inhabited.

The narrator draws the cathedral with his eyes closed and with Robert's hand clasped over his. The experience of blindness and human touch yields for the narrator a transcendent feeling of freedom, perhaps from his own limited existence.