The Architecture of Femininity in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral (Essay Sample)

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The Architecture of Femininity in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral
Although Raymond Carver’s Cathedral has received wider popularity among readers, thanks to the humor and symbolism construction, the thematic concern of feminism has been ignored. The story begins with an immediate tension when the unnamed narrator mentions that he is expecting a visitor, a blind man whom he feels is too close to his wife. His discomfort with Robert, he claims, is because of his blindness, but clearly his fears revolve around the imagination that the visitor would soon usurp his masculinity. It is true that the fictional characters in the story evoke real emotions and hopelessness, but the characterization, setting, and the narration brings into question the role of gender in the society. Unlike the usual eighteenth century promotion of hierarchy, Carver attempts to show the strength of a woman in a man’s world as well as the possibility of equality between the genders. This paper, therefore, explores the concept of feminism to analyze the role of women in Cathedral.
Unlike men, Carver portrays women as sensible creatures who are in control of their existence. The narrator does not give a vivid account of his actions prior, during, or after events, yet he narrates the wife’s actions and decisions that mold her existence in the moment. In her review, Madeleine Stein notes that “the wife is established as one whose sensibility is exactly that which escapes the husband” (Stein 36). Unlike the narrator, his wife is actively involved in the story as she finds meaning of her existence. The narrator recalls the events that she had done ten years earlier. He notes, “She hadn’t seen him since she worked for him one summer in Seattle ten years ago. But she and the blind man had kept in touch. They made tapes and mailed them back and forth” (Carver 211). Uncontrollably, the wife has continued to