Tone Of Richard Cory

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A troubling story featuring a narrative poem, “Richard Cory,” is the story of a man who seems to have it all. The jewelry he wore would gleam brightly and the people of the town who are clearly of a lower class, place Richard Cory on a pedestal. Cory demonstrated wealth, and his demeanor seemed to be cordial, harmonious, and mellow even if it consisted being “richer than a king”. Ultimately, they learn a valuable life lesson. Richard Cory kills himself, showing the people of the town that some things can’t be purchased and that looks can be deceiving. The central idea, or theme, of “Richard Cory” is that riches and status don’t ensure happiness.
Robinson uses connotation broadly to place Richard Cory high on a pedestal above the townspeople. …show more content…
The poorer, lower class townspeople respect and admire Richard Cory. They look up to him, literally and figuratively. They want to be him. This build-up of Richard Cory’s character allows the last line to have a huge impact. The impact and irony of the last line is used to emphasize Robinson’s point that looks can be deceptive and to give the poem an ironic tone in the end.
The irony of the poem is expressed by the tone and the theme. Irony, in this case situational irony, occurs when the outcome of a situation is unexpected or a surprise. Richard Cory appears to have it all. The people of the town want to be just like him because his life appears to be perfect. In the real world, Cory is lacking happiness, the key ingredient to “having it all.” The irony of the poem is that this man, that seems to have everything, kills himself because he is …show more content…
His slimness, quietness and fluttering and glittering, being “richer than a king” and his perfect manners all become ironic in the light of the fact that none of the above were making his personal life happy and satisfying. The speaker thought that poor people are the only sufferers in life, as if poverty is the only problem in life. Now it’s seen that it is a foolish idea. Happiness is not a matter of being rich or powerful. To have a high status, a lot of money or to be popular are no guarantees of happy life. This in general, is the theme of the irony; it is also an irony about the material prosperity of the modern American. There is also another more general irony about human beings. The speaker also says that they did not eat the bread they could get and they went without the meant that they could not get. They cursed the bread they could get! The theme here is material wealth and the irony is that those who want more, something better, and those who do not get it are dreaming of it, somewhere. The poem Richard Cory has it’s tragic and has a moral. It is also dramatic in a sense that it is a thought-provoking compressed little
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