Themes and message

… 

In the story, the narrator is a man who cannot understand the blind. Because he relies on the observations he makes through sight, he assumes being blind is a burden and deprives both the blind person and those around them of important aspects of life. He assumes Robert’s marriage with Beulah was marked by dissatisfaction because of his disability: “Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one. A woman who could go on day after day and never receive the smallest compliment from her beloved.” (p. 3, ll. 36-38)

Furthermore, the narrator is surprised by Robert not wearing dark glasses and by him being able to smoke and eat by himself without any challenges. In the story, the narrator relies on sight and language more than any of his other senses and fails to communicate properly both with his wife and with Robert. He and his wife have various verbal arguments or exchange looks which convey tension.

...

Relationships

The theme of relationships is explored through marriage and friendship. The narrator presents his wife’s former marriage and her friendship with Robert, at the same time that readers get to see the narrator’s present interactions with his wife.

Marriage is presented as conducive to dissatisfaction. The former marriage of the narrator’s wife was based on love, but it gradually fell apart because of the husband’s job which did not allow her to build stable relationships with other people (they were constantly on the move). The woman began to feel lonely and tried killing herself with pills and alcohol. Here, the motif of drinking marks the end of a stage in the woman’s life.

...