Richard Cory Literary Analysis

Option 1: Analyzing Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory”

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory” is a poem largely structured around the poetic device of irony. The poem begins by presenting the title character as a handsome, wealthy figure who “glittered” when he walked, according to the poet. The inhabitants of Cory’s town are eaten up by jealousy. However, the final line of the poem notes that Cory one day came home and put a bullet in his own brain and presumably at the same time put an end to the admiration of the townspeople. The poem suggests that even people with apparently happy lives may lead unhappy existences in private. The psychological study of the poem is less Cory, who is not really profiled throughout much of the text, than it is the people who watch and observe him from afar. The poem suggests that Cory was a profoundly lonely man, in contrast to the idealized figure the townspeople believed him to be.
The poem begins almost like a camera zeroing in on a figure in the distance, then moving closer. “He was a gentleman from sole to crown, / Clean favored, and imperially slim” (3-4). The poem is not narrated from Cory’s perspective. He never speaks throughout the duration of the poem. Rather, the poem is narrated through the voices of the townspeople, who form a collective “we.” The sentence, “We people on the pavement looked at him,” suggests that the average person was afraid to approach him and merely regarded Cory from afar (2). This might even be a reason for Cory’s unhappiness, because while the poem suggests that Cory was admired, there is no indication that he had any close friends in the town.
The poem makes use of the technique of hyperbole to demonstrate the townspeople’s perceptions of Cory. Again, the use of the pronoun “we” suggests a kind of collective certainty about who the man is and his exterior surface. “And he was always quietly arrayed, / And he was always human when he talked” (5-6). The phrases suggest that Cory dressed in a muted, unostentatious way and did not want to draw attention to himself. This seems to draw the approval of the town, even though they still regard him with awe. The idea that he seemed “human” when he talked is particularly odd, given that someone who is a human being should, one would think, seem human already without it being remarked upon.
The phrase “human when he talked” evidently suggests that Cory did not put on airs, despite his great wealth. But it also suggests that Cory was putting on the appearance of being human, happy, and having normal social relationships. He may have been able to fool some people but he was not able to fool himself. Oddly enough, there are also indications that people would have liked to have gotten to know him better, since he is said to have “fluttered pulses” when he “glittered.” But Cory is only said to be seen walking from a distance, always alone.
The psychology presented of the collective observers of the suicidal man is that they are projecting their own beliefs about happiness onto Cory. They feel that Cory is above them, even if Cory appears to be kind and not put on airs. Cory, although his psychology is less clear since it is only portrayed from a distance, seems to be a lonely man who puts on an appearance of being a wealthy, kind person but who does not need other people. The idea of glittering, while attractive, suggests someone who keeps people at a distance, for all of his apparent humanness. Cory is described as being “richer than a king,” even though no one can really know how much money he has, simply by looking at him, and being “schooled in every grace” also suggests a sense of artificial manners, rather than something Cory is really feeling. Cory is a man, in other words, without friends or human connections, at least from all of the evidence in the poem, and is someone other people know very little about.
The observers from the town are poor, and curse their bread, go without meat, and wish they were like the rich, happy young man. It is not clear why Cory commits suicide at the end of the poem; it may be due to loneliness or other motivations. “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, / Went home and put a bullet through his head” (15-16). But the fact that he committed suicide on a calm summer night suggests that this was something that had been building for a long time within him, not motivated by any external event.
Works Cited
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Cory.” The Poetry Foundation. 15 Feb 2018. Web. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44982/richard-cory