Sunday, 30 November 2008

What Is Ironic About The Ending Of The Poem "richard Cory" By Edwin Arlington Robinson?

When the
outcome of a situation is the opposite of what one would expect, that is situational . In
"," as the poem describes the character, readers believe he is a person who has
everything going for him--he has it all. Readers understand why the townspeople--"we people
on the pavement"--would envy him, wanting to be in his place.

Richard
Cory has good looks: he is "clean-favored and imperially slim." He has good manners
and breeding: he is "a gentleman." He has nice clothes and a good presence about him:
he is "quietly arrayed" and he glitters when he walks. Yet he doesn't seem to be
conceited or to put on airs: he is "human." Not only that, he is extremely
wealthy--"richer than a king"--at least to the people who are living in poverty,
working for wages that don't even allow them to buy meat. 

All these virtues
that Richard Cory has make it seem likely that he would be happy and satisfied with his life.
Yet he must not be, because he ends up committing suicide. This is...

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