The Mental Health and Analysis of the Narrator in Cathedral
Cathedral is a short story of a man who appears to be insensitive to the blind. That is not the point it is the story of a man who is not blind but oblivious to life. He uses unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drinking and smoking marijuana to feel better. The story starts with the narrator and his wife talking in the kitchen. They are discussing Robert who is first labeled as “the blind man” in the story” who is going to be visiting. Since his wife had just died. The narrator is very hesitant about Robert's visit, it is first mentioned in the story that Robert and the narrator's wife keep in touch by sending out tapes. The narrator is livid…show more content… All we know is that they’re married but we don’t see a timeline of their relationship, and we aren’t given details if they touch or even kiss each other. With Robert though we know that he and the narrator's wife have some history between them. The narrator stated this when Robert agreed to stay up with him “My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time”. This is more proof that the narrator and his wife do not possess a good…show more content… When the narrator agreed to listen to one of the tapes between Robert and his wife. He got drinks for both him and his wife, he couldn’t bear to listen to it before he had a drink. That incident isn’t concerning but repeatedly the narrator drinks and usually drinks too much. When he was talking about Robert visiting and the narrator was being irrational his wife asked: “Are you drunk”? (DiYanni,315) Her concern leaves us to believe that the narrator has a history of being drunk and irrational behavior. Also when the narrator asks Robert if he wants a drink he states” We have a little of everything. It’s one of our pastimes”. That leads us to believe that the narrator has a lot of alcohol and drinking is one of his enjoyment . We don’t know exactly how many drinks he had to drink at dinner but it was quite a lot. Obviously, we cannot diagnose the narrator with “alcoholism” for we have far too little evidence .We can say that he does have a problem drinking . The narrator's wife stated, “You don't have any friends”.( DiYanni, 315) Her statement would lead to us to believe the narrator doesn't have friends and is lonely .Loneliness and lack of friends are a risk factor for alcoholism. So we can infer that is why the narrator has a drinking
