Alymer vs Robert
I chose to compare and contrast Alymer from “The Birth-mark” and Robert, the blind man from “Cathedral,” because I believe that they are significantly different and have drastically different definitions and interpretations of “happiness.” Keeping this in mind, I thought it would be an interesting task to juxtapose their contrasting theories of happiness and see if they at any point overlap.
From the beginning of “The birth-mark,” Alymer urges his bride, Georgianna, to get rid of the red hand-shaped birth-mark that he believes deprives her from being genuinely beautiful. It seems that Alymer believes that by ridding them both(I say both not because the mark stains them both, but rather because he considers it a burden of his own as well as Georgianna’s) of the birth-mark that they will finally be able to live live happily, and Georgianna will finally be “flawlessly beautiful.” Interestingly enough, it doesn’t seem as if Georgianna ever considered having the birth-mark removed, after seeing just how much it bothered her husband, after seeing how unhappy it made him, she was quick to try and appease him. Her happiness was in seeing her husband happy.
Now Robert, the blind man in “Cathedral,” seems to find happiness in less superficial things. Whether it be because he’s blind, therefore he’s learned not to take the small things for granted, or whether or not this was his natural personality, is unknown to the reader. However, it is extremely undeniable that in comparison to Alymer, Robert is accustomed to accepting things as they come to him. For example, when the husband attempted to describe the structure of a cathedral to the blind man, although his explanation was choppy and clearly impossible for a blind man to picture, Robert didn’t get discouraged or even angry; he calmly helped the husband into participating in a description method that the blind man could understand. By doing this, not only was the blind man able to better understand the structure of cathedrals, but he was able to see the husband find joy out of participating in this drawing method and that also seemed to make Robert happy; he found happiness in the husband’s happiness.
Alymer, a man who believed in superficial happiness, and Robert, a man who found happiness in more simplistic things, both showed signs of finding happiness in another’s joy. However different their ideas of happiness are, this one fact is undeniable. Why do you think Robert found it much easier than Alymer to embrace the happiness found in simple happenings?