narrator's reaction to the poem that his wife had written about the experience of having her face touched by Robert--a clearly intimate and deeply meaningful experience for her:

When we first started going out together, she showed me the poem. In the poem, she recalled his fingers and the way they had moved around over her face. In this poem, she talked about what she had felt at the time, about what went through her mind when the blind man touched her nose and lips. I can remember I didn't think much of the poem. Of course, I didn't tell her that. Maybe I just don't understand poetry.

What is interesting about this response is that the narrator doesn't like the poem, but then goes on to justify his dislike rather than honestly admitting that he doesn't like this poem because he is jealous of the relationship that his wife has with Robert and its depth of intimacy, which is something that he himself has not experienced with his wife. We can see a similar example of self-deception at the beginning of the story when the narrator tells us that he wasn't "enthusiastic" about Robert's visit, then goes on to say that this is because of the way blind men are portrayed in films. Such quotes show us that the narrator is clearly jealous, but he is not himself aware of the extent of his jealousy.

The central irony of "Cathedral" is that the narrator is the one who is truly blind, in a spiritual sense. The narrator is contrasted with Robert, a man who cannot physically see. The narrator pities Robert, believing his quality of life and relationships must be far lower than his own because of his disability. However, the narrator only "sees" people in the most superficial sense. He has a hard time relating to other people or even comprehending his own inner life.

For example, the narrator is not especially close to his own wife. She writes poems to express her feelings about important moments in her life, but the narrator is unable to properly appreciate them, because he does not understand them—and therefore does not understand his wife. He is self-absorbed in the extreme, unable to see beyond his own experience, even expecting to hear his wife sing his praises when Robert comes by to visit.

The moment where Robert and the narrator draw a cathedral together is the moment the narrator's inner eye is finally opened. Realizing he cannot describe a cathedral to Robert, the act of drawing one with Robert allows the narrator to not only connect with someone else, but to engage in shared communication. It is an intimate moment in which both men see the same thing. The narrator's narcissistic barrier is broken; he can see now as Robert sees.