1. In the beginning when the blind man came to their house for the first time, he judged Robert because he was blind. "And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed." The narrator changes his mind when Robert told him to draw the Cathedral on the paper.…
The church was designed in such a beautiful way that people come just to see the decorated chapels. There are two of these chapels - the lower chapel and the upper chapel. The lower chapel is highly decorated, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. During the reign of King Louis IX, this area of the cathedral was reserved for palace staff. The architecture in this chapel is stunning; the ceiling is painted to appear a starry sky, the walls hold representations of the Apostles, and even the floor holds tombstones of reverends and treasurers of the Sainte-Chapelle. The one negative thing about the lower chapel is that it is quite dark. This is a contrast to the upper chapel. The upper chapel is light and full of color, and is known as the “Highlight of the Monument.” The decorations show art and religion working harmoniously, and there is a sense of holiness in this area because this is the chapel in which the Holy Relics were kept. Although both of these chapels are very beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful thing of all in this cathedral are the stained glass windows. Appearing in dominant colors of blue and red, there are about 600 square meters of these stained glass windows. The art dates back to a long time ago - the twelfth century craftsmanship is ancient, yet so perfect to the cathedral. What is even more stunning about these window panes is that they can be read in arches that go from left to right. In fact, they tell…
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore has managed to raise several questions and curiosity amongst scholars. In the early 14th century a feud between Florence and other emerging cities began, each trying to beat the other with building bigger cathedrals. Florentines didn’t like the look of gothic cathedrals, for inspiration for their dome, they looked at ancient Rome’s famous building that payed tribute to all of the gods, the Pantheon. A mural, years…
Upon finishing the circuitous walk, we continue to the apse. Since the cathedral is laid out in a cruciform shape, we pass by the two transepts (right and left rectangular shapes of a cross). Pillars line the aisle stretching a magnificant18 m to the ceiling. Once in the nave, we can observe the vaulted ceiling, which is 36 m high, and stained glass windows on either side. Prior to entering the Cathedral, we had noticed the unusual flying buttresses (the supporting arches over the windows) on the outside walls of the nave, created to support the extra tall vaulted ceiling. The extraordinary stained glass windows are dark, but still light enough to allow us to view “biblical stories, legends of the saints, the lives of heroes like Roland and Charlemagne, and scenes of everyday medieval life”.…
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is simply breathtaking. From the exterior to the interior of the cathedral, you can find plentiful amounts of highly sophisticated bodies of work. Before laying a foot inside, the massive bronze doors containing forty-eight relief panels depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament catches the eyes of many. Also, many note the exquisite statues and carvings of saints and Jesus all along the Western Front of the Cathedral. Once inside, the enormous pilier-cantonnés stand along the nave aisle, where it erects up into the ceiling. Eventually, the columns meet with one another at four angles, creating a quadripartite vault in the nave ceiling. The stained glass windows that lines the entire cathedral strikes your retina at all different angles as you rotate your body. A little beyond the crossing, the high altar contains a magnificent cross, as well as an iron tomb of the man who founded the cathedral. If you focus the eyes just behind the choir, you will glare at seven stunning radial chapels—each one representing an apostle, a patron, or immigrant. But out of all the marvelous artwork within and outside the chapel, there was one particular window that caught my attention.…
One of the most notable differences is their preference on verticality versus horizontality, which can be considered to be opposition to each other in style features. They used architectural features such as vertical vault shafts to highlight the height and width of cathedrals. It is also found that although both of them used buttresses, they used in different ways. French gothic cathedrals intend to accentuate the vertical lines of the cathedrals by using the flying buttresses in the exterior, while English gothic cathedrals usually build buttresses in the interior of the cathedrals. Moreover, both of them differ from the facade and east ends of the cathedrals. There were also similarities between them, such as the use of ribbed vaulting and pointed arches. When it comes to the functions and meanings of French and English gothic cathedrals, they have distinctive values. The cathedrals in France are symbol of heaven, but in English it is the symbolic connotation of processions. Through comparing French and English gothic cathedrals, artistic styles, historical influence and functional values help us lay a solid foundation to have a better understanding of the complicated art at that historical…
The most impressive part of the design is in its dome, where the complex corners and curves of the plan are pulled upwards like a tent. Standing at the center of the church and looking upwards, it’s beautiful shape is revealed, and the pronounced entablature makes the visitor want to flow around the space, following its shape. The dome is filled with natural light, which elevates the space into a spiritual…
The style of this building is most likely to be in the Late Gothic period, which is around 13th century. This structure has a lot of key elements like: stained glass rose windows, diagonal and transverse ribs vaults with pointed arches, and clerestory. These are the similarities in most of the Gothic cathedrals in 13th century. The use of bar tracery and the blind arcade are also typical for the Gothic period. Another example of this kind of architecture is the Notre-Dame de Paris in France.…
Civilizations have evolved and prospered throughout history, producing unique buildings and architectural styles along the way. The buildings are expressed as society’s values and unique characteristics that are simply astonishing. Medieval cathedrals were the product of more than a 1000 years of both religion and architectural evolution. Medieval cathedrals played a major role in Christian heritage, the gothic and architecture. The medieval period, with its boundless faith and energetic spirit, found an ultimate expression in the cathedral…
“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone” (Audrey Hepburn). Hepburn’s quote in terms of this short story depicts the relationship between the narrator’s wife, narrator, and Robert. The narrator has a rebirth of his own personality after he meets Robert. At first, the husband seems to lack sensitivity, and at times is egotistic. As the story progresses, the narrators attitude changes and is redeemed at the end of the story. In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral", even though Robert is physically blind, it is really the narrator who cannot see clearly about relationships; however, the husband finds redemption in regards to putting himself into the blinds man’s shoes.…
“Cathedral” teaches a closed minded man that you don’t have to see things to understand them. The narrator is the man in the story that has this life changing experience that opened him up to a whole new world of understanding. This helps the reader to go inside the main characters mind and see his point of view. The overwhelming theme of this story is the conversion of the narrator from a man who sees the world in a basic way to a man who understands the deeper meaning of it. The blind man teaches the narrator a lesson that it’s not how you interpret things through sight, but how you imagine it.…
A persons ability to see is often taken for granted as it is in the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. Although the title hints that the story is about a cathedral, it is really about two men who are blind. one of the men is Robert, the blind friend of the narrators wife. The other is the narrator, the husband himself; he is psychologically blind. through the husbands words and actions when he is dealing with Robert, the blind man, it is shown that the husband doesn’t “see” or understand what Roberts blindness means and how it changes or doesn’t change him as a person. At first, Robert makes the husband feel very uncomfortable, for the husband doesn’t know what to say or do around the blind man. As the story progresses, we can see a change in the husband, he seems to be able to see Robert as a person and not just a blind man.…
In this quotation, the narrator tried to describe a cathedral that appeared on the television to Robert. The narrator had difficulties in describing the cathedral. At that moment Robert grabbed his hand and guided him with the drawing.…
In Bouriana Zakharieva’s essay, Frankenstein of the Nineties: The Composite Body, Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film version of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein is discussed and examined in relation to its literary counterpart. A more recent film that seems to parallel the novel is Colin Trevorrow’s 2015 film, Jurassic World. The film is about a theme park that has created a genetically modified, hybrid dinosaur called the Indominus Rex. There are many similarities between the film and Shelley’s nightmarish story, one is the motif of science versus nature and the unnatural creation of life by scientists. With the “progress” of technology our culture reflects the fear of creating our own destruction. Jurassic World is a modern Frankenstein formed…
Irony occurs in every single person’s daily life. The short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver tells a story in which many people in the world can connect to. From the way Carver writes the first sentence he sounds very annoyed. Within the first paragraph it says why he is so agitated and it is for the lone reason that his wife’s friend, a blind man, is coming to visit. Robert, the blind man, is not the only blind person in this story, but rather the narrator is as well. Not physically, but instead he is blinded by his own ignorance. Irony is used throughout the story to show the transformation of one man; from an ignorant narrow-minded jerk, to a man that is completely capable of now “seeing”. From the very beginning, Carver blatantly shows his hate for Robert but as the story moves along Robert helps teach Carver a lesson that is a necessity to reach any kind of further success in his life.…