The Medieval Gothic Cathedral Essay

Sometimes we have to look beyond what we see on the outside to understand something more deeply. In the short story Cathedral By Raymond Carver, the narrator has an attitude of being selfish, and jealous through the story. The narrator’s wife invites a blind man, Robert, to come stay in their house for a short time while the man visits family members of his own wife who recently passed. The narrator is not enthusiastic because blind people make the narrator uncomfortable, mainly because the narrator has no real experience with the blind. In addition, to his uneasiness with the blind the narrator is uncomfortable with the relationship his wife and the blind man have. The wife and Robert, the blind man, have maintained a close

Ziggy Marley once said, “God is like the sun. When the sun shines, it shines for everyone. God is for everyone.” In the same way, Abbot Suger built the Basilica of St. Denis so that sunlight would flood throughout the building and symbolize the power of God inviting visitors into the cathedral. The Basilica of St. Denis was an artistic response to the rise of the Catholic Church’s power for it was modeled to be a physical representation of heaven, which the church heavily preached upon. (Thesis) As the basilica represented the shift from Romanesque architecture to Gothic, Abbot Suger introduced new techniques that transformed cathedrals to look more spacious and “heavenly”. (Map Statement #1-Art History) By allowing sunlight to come

The story of Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, shows that you do not have to see someone or something in order to appreciate them for who or what they are. It is about a husband, the narrator, and his wife who live in a house. The wife, whose name they do not mention, has a very close friend who is blind. His name is Robert. Robert's wife dies, and comes to their house to spend a couple of days with the narrator and his wife. The narrator, whose name they do not mention as well, is always on edge because he does not really know Robert very well and he does not like blind people, but he is being friendly for his wife's sake. The story comes to an end when Robert and the narrator draw a cathedral together using the narrator's hand and helped by

The cathedral was already a popular pilgrimage due to holding The Veil of The Virgin, a tunic said to be worn by the Virgin Mary. In the late 12th century the cult of the virgin was immensely popular, and the importance of the Virgin Mary grew, causing relics related to her to be highly sought after, by both churches and pilgrims. The cathedral of Chartres only grew in importance after receiving the skull of St. Anne (mother of the Virgin Mary). In my opinion the window also serves as a point of devotion, a place for people to be in awe and bask in holy divinity, whether that be viewed as the light that filters in behind Mary, or the spark of divine clarity that inspired the windows creation. While the name is a reference to the actual depiction of Mary, I believe that it is also used to indicate a closer connection to the queen of Heaven. The Cathedral at Chartres and in Paris are both dedicated to Mary and share the same name " Our Lady of" and so I think that choosing to name the window that elevates it from a work of art, and past even that of a reliquary to that of a holy site, and a place to

"Cathedral" is a short story ultimately about enlightment, finding something more meaningful and deeper with in one self. Although from an observing point of view nothing more in the story happens then a blind man assisting the narrator in drawing a cathedral. Although as known, the narrator's experience radically differs from what is actually "observed". He is enlightened and opened up to a new world of vision and imagination. This brief experience will have a life long effect on him. The reason for this strong and positive effect is not so much the relationship made between the blind man and the narrator or even the actual events leading up to this experience, but rather it is mostly due to what was drawn by the narrator.

Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” and Carver’s Cathedral provide insight into parallel words. The protagonists in each story are trapped in a world of ignorance because each is comfortable in the dark, and fearful of what knowledge a light might bring. They are reluctant to venture into unfamiliar territory. Fortunately the narrator in the Cathedral is forced by circumstances to take a risk. This risk leads him into new world of insight and understanding.

Moutiers-Saint-Jean was founded by a hermit called John of Réôme in the fifth century in dedication to the Virgin Mary. “His sanctity drew others to him and enabled him to found a religious community dedicated to the Virgin. Such monasteries grew up in Burgundy and elsewhere from the cells of disciples clustered around the hermitage of a holy person.”1 It was the monasteries dedication to the Virgin that inspired the biblical scene on the arch of the doorway to be the Coronation of the Virgin. In the scene, Christ and Mary are enthroned in the Kingdom of Heaven. This scene was popular because rich imagery of the story was used “…in order to glorify the

The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).

It is human nature to shy away from social situations that make us uncomfortable. Also, as a people with great pride, we often find it difficult to admit when we have been iniquitous, or to allow ourselves to be open to humbling experiences. Sometimes though, it is not entirely due to intolerance that we allow ourselves to make ill-informed judgments. Raymond Carver was a writer with some insight concerning these very ideas. In his short story, “Cathedral,” Carver uses a nameless narrator and his interactions with a blind man to illustrate how a lack of experience can lead to ignorance and thus prejudice. Through the development of this character,

In the Protestant Church as seen in the image, relics were not worshiped. Protestants believed that they should not worship relics because they thought that if they did worship relics that they would end up worshiping the object and not God.

It is the home of the Cathedral clergy and others associated with its life, and of the

Corresponding to how the Salisbury Cathedral is the epitome of English Gothic Architecture, the Amiens Cathedral is the essence of French Gothic Architecture, the difference however is that with the Amiens Cathedral it is rather uniform in its appearance compared to the contrast of conflicting architectural styles of the Salisbury Cathedral. Amiens Cathedral serves as a testament to the beauty and grace of the French Gothic movement in the 13th century. This stunning cathedral stands in the once thriving and bustling town of Amiens, France, located roughly 140 kilometers north of Paris. The Amiens Cathedral was commissioned by Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy to replace a smaller church dedicated to St. Mary and St. Firmin that had burned down in 1218. The destruction that the fire had wreaked over the city was so disastrous that nothing remained from any of the former churches. Construction of the nave began in 1220 and finished in 1288, a period of sixty eight years. The master of the work was named Robert de Luzarches. Master Thomas de Cormont came after him and eventually his son, Regnault, succeeded him. There were several additions made at the times, and repairs and restorations have been carried out from time to time; but Amiens and its main features stands accurately to that of a thirteenth-century French cathedral. In 1258, another fire broke out that threatened to undo the work that the architectures spent so many years working on. Luckily the building survived, but not

greed when the church was built and dressed so lavishly. There were rumors of corrupt

Relics are religious objects generally connected to a saint, or holy people. A relic might be a body part, a cloth worn by the Virgin Mary, or a piece of the True Cross. Would be paintings of saints, and the walls of the church might tell a story about hell and heaven. Stained glass windows were also a script, displaying Biblical stories or saints' lives. Others presented an integrated scheme that related the life of Christ and Old Testament

In the year 1140, the Gothic architectural movement began with the construction of the Church of Saint-Denise. The church was built just north of Paris, France, and from there the Gothic style began to spread throughout the country. From the Bourges Cathedral, to the Cathedral of Amiens the High Gothic period had made its mark in history. Some of them still standing today, the Cathedral of Amiens stands the tallest in the country at 112 meters at the tip of the spire.