Theme and Narrative Elements in the Short Story Cathedral
Jeffrey A. Bauer
ENG125
Dr. Myer
September 18, 2014

Theme and Narrative Elements in the Short Story Cathedral
The story “Cathedral” is a first person story about a narrator, his wife and a blind man named Robert who is close friends with the narrator’s wife. The narrator remains unnamed throughout the story, who is a jealous, insecure and close-minded man which is basis of the main theme in this story. According to Clugston, 2014, “The narrator, a self-absorbed person, admits his own “blindness” (lack of insight) about blind people. He doesn’t like the fact that Robert and his wife are close friends” (p.145). I believe the main theme here is insecurity, ignorance and irony. A theme is “an idea, or message, that lies behind a literary work” (Clugston, 2014, p. 117). The narrator is insecure about the relationship between his wife and Robert. In the essay, “Cathedral” by Bill Delaney, he writes about how the narrator is jealous of Robert because of his former relationship with his wife and how he is insecure knowing that his wife has probably told Robert about his faults (Delaney, 2004). I believe that the narrator shows his ignorance by mocking Robert with comments such as, “Maybe I could take him bowling” (Clugston, 2014, p.145). The irony in this story is that despite the narrator’s insecurity and ignorance, he is able to see from Robert at the end of the story.
The main character in this story is the narrator, which is the main basis of the theme. “Characters carry out the action of the plot and in doing so they come alive as individuals” (Clugston, 2014, p.64). Throughout the story the narrator presents himself as a close-minded and insecure man. He shows his jealously of not only Robert but hints of jealously of all men in his wife’s life. He mocks of Robert’s blindness by making