Threatening Relationships in Carver's Cathedral Although many critics have written numerous accounts of Richard Carver's "Cathedral" as being about revealing and overcoming prejudice, they have overlooked one very significant aspect: the unfolding of the marital drama. The story tells of how a close external friendship can threaten a marriage by causing insecurities, creating feelings of invasion of privacy, and exacerbating communication barriers. The close external friendship between the narrator's wife and Robert, the blind man, causes the narrator's insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten long years. During those years, they exchanged countless voice recordings in which they both tell each other what happened in their respective lives. Because of this, the narrator believes that his wife has told Robert more than Robert needs to know. The narrator complains: "I told him everything or so it seemed to me" (1054). The narrator's fear is somewhat confirmed when Robert arrives and says that it seems to him that they have met before (1055). The narrator is left wondering what his wife revealed. This dark situation leaves the narrator insecure, especially when he sees the warm interaction between his wife and Robert. The narrator's insecurities are revealed when it takes him nearly five pages just to demonstrate how close the friendship between his wife and Robert is. It's as if he's justifying his irrational behavior or perhaps wondering if his wife might be secretly in love with Robert. The narrator assumes this because his wife only writes poetry if something really important happens to her. He recalls that his wife never forgot that moment when Robert "touched every part of her face with his fingers... half of the paper... m. Ed. Thomas Volteler. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. 23-28. Carver, Raymond. “Cathedral.” The Harper Fiction Anthology, Ed. Sylvan Barnet, New York: HarperCollins, 1052-1062. “Pain on the Face of Central America.” Detroit: Gale Research Publishing, Inc., 103. Works consulted Robinson, Marilynne, 1989. 276-278. Weele, Michael Vander. "Raymond Carver and the Language of Desire." Ed. Thomas Volteler ., 1989. 36-41.Yardley, Carver's Jonathan American Dreamers." Contemporary literary criticism. Eds. Daniel Marowski and Roger Matuz. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1989. 63.