Initially, the narrator is unsympathetic to Robert's blindness. He appears to subscribe to the dominant prejudice of the time that looks upon blind people as somehow helpless and weak; nothing more than a burden to society. No wonder then that he makes it crystal clear that Robert isn't welcome at his home: “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” In this quotation is encapsulated one of the main themes of...
Initially, the narrator is unsympathetic to Robert's blindness. He appears to subscribe to the dominant prejudice of the time that looks upon blind people as somehow helpless and weak; nothing more than a burden to society. No wonder then that he makes it crystal clear that Robert isn't welcome at his home: “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” In this quotation is encapsulated one of the main themes of the story. It is the narrator rather than Robert who is really blind. He cannot see why his wife finds him so fascinating; nor does he understand what it's like for someone to live in a world without sight.
Yet this is ironic indeed. For it is the narrator whose world is narrowed by a lack of vision, not Robert's. Robert's imaginative world is infinitely richer and more multifaceted than that of the narrator. When Robert takes the narrator's hand and they begin to draw the picture of a cathedral, the narrator finally realises something very important. Not only do the blind and the sighted share the same world, but blind people also inhabit a world of their own, one which, when communicated to the sighted, can provide an added dimension to their experience of life in all its richness and diversity.
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