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“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson are two poems that depict how many people hide their feelings from others by masking what is within with false appearances. Told from different perspectives, the subjects in the poems deceive others by leading them to believe their lives are adequate when really they are suffering.
In “Richard Cory”, the main character, Richard Cory, was the perfect man. He had everything, he was a gentleman, clean, slim, educated, and rich. Arlington emphasized how Corey had everything with his use of repetitiveness using “And” at the beginning of each line describing Cory’s characteristics. Cory is admired by all and was the man whom everyone wished to be. The common
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peoples' feelings towards Cory are emphasized by stating: "we thought that he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place." Those who had admired him came from a lower class than he and worked in his factory.
While Cory had it all, they had little to nothing as they "went without the meat, and cursed the bread". They envied all they saw of him and all that he had. However, despite Cory’s perfectness that was displayed to others, one night Cory did the unpredictable and shot himself in the head. All who envied Cory assumed he would have been happy because of how successful he was, but no one could see the great suffering that heavily weighed on Cory. Cory hid his feelings behind his appearance, riches, and success. Arlington uses irony in “Cory” to address the theme of the poem. The irony in the poem portrays the theme that looks can be very deceiving. In the beginning of the poem we learn that Richard Cory is perfect and rich. …show more content…
But at the end, through Cory’s suicide, we learn that he was not as content as he appeared. To the lower class, because he 'had everything', he couldn't possibly bear any problems like they do. No negative aspects of Cory or the internal conflicts he bore were mentioned in the poem. The common people didn't know Cory personally, so they only judged him based on what they saw. Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first influential African American poets and wrote the poem “We Wear the Mask” about the suffering of the African American people. The title is a paradox because the poem is ‘wearing a mask’. The reader would not know that the ‘we’ in the poem are African Americans if they didn’t know that the author was an African American; therefore, knowledge beneath the poem was needed. The speaker, on behalf of the African American people, is informing the reader of the great suffering they endure and how they hide it. They choose to hide their pain behind “the mask that grins and lies” because they believe the world shouldn’t see their pain. If they appear weak to the white society, conditions may worsen for them. African Americans showing they were hurt was not acceptable because during this time they were still treated as inhuman property. Consequently, they shouldn’t have any emotions if they were not human. To show no sense of pain, they made themselves look like they were content and hid behind “the mask that grins and lies”, when really they carried a heavy burden. To emphasize how much the people greatly suffered and how strongly motivated they were to hide their true feelings with a happy smile, Dunbar uses personification by writing: “with torn and bleeding hearts we smile”. This statement portrays how strong they must remain in order to keep hiding their agony. Knowing the consequences of weakness, they must be motivated to conceal their true feelings.The repetitive use of the line “we wear the mask” emphasizes how determined the people were to hide their true emotions and “tortured souls”. “Richard Cory” and “We Wear the Mask” are similar in the theme that appearances can be deceiving.
Many feel the need to and do hide their pain with a mask. Humans do not want each other to see the suffering they are enduring so instead they choose to hide their true feelings. In “Cory”, Cory appeared to have it all, having the life of riches that everyone wanted. Cory was the man everyone wanted to be. However, no one who saw Cory actually knew him as a person. No one knew that the perfect man was really suffering behind his perfect mask. Just like Richard Cory, the African American people in “Mask” hid their sufferings and torture they endured from the world by smiling and singing, pretending to be happy. Neither Cory or the people in “Mask” wanted the world to see their pain, hence they hid behind masks of happiness. The two poems are different in tones and perspective. At the beginning of “Cory”, the tone is of adoration and praise of Richard Cory and how he has everything. In the end of the poem, the tone changes to be dramatic when Richard Cory kills himself. The use of tone further emphasizes the theme in a way that a person can come across happy and somehow, they are not. The tones in “Cory” differ from “Mask” because throughout “Mask” the tone remains unclear and a mystery because we know how extreme the suffering the people are undergoing is, yet there is a sense of positivity with strength as the people try to hide their pain with happiness. Complementing the
theme of the poems, the two are told from different point of views: one from behind the mask and the other from an outsider who can only see the mask. By having the different perspectives, the reader can learn how one who suffers, feels and thinks and how not everyone is how they may seem. “Richard Cory” and “We Wear the Mask” prove that things are not always as they seem because appearances often conceal what is within. The poems give the reader different perspectives from one who is powerful and successful and another who is oppressed. They have different voices but still maintain the theme that often people are not as they appear.
In contrast, Richard Cory was viewed as the gem of the neighborhood, unlike The Barbie doll. Richard Cory was a man loved by all. He was a man that society had put up on a pedestal. He had the looks, wealth and the manner that everyone wanted. Even though people did not really know him they wanted to live like him an...
For fear of judgment based on appearance, any human being might cover up his sorrows as to not display any signs of weakness. Throughout Dunbar’s poem, the characters reflect upon their perception of the world and ironically accept the world the way it is. Revealing the true nature of the world, Dunbar states, “Why should the world be over-wise, /In counting all our tears and sighs?” (Dunbar 6). The poet insists that everyone need to be more comfortable and open to new ideas while embracing each others uniquenesses defined by strengths and weaknesses. The world was never “over-wise” because people dismiss the idea of helping others in fear of ruining their own reputation. Because of the utter nature of society, citizens have no other option but to wear a mask of apathy and cover up their insecurities. The narrator feels the need to conceal their feelings by “wear[ing] the mask that grins and lies” (Dunbar 1). They use “lies” to cover themselves, but at the same time question why no one seems to care. This contradiction complicates the battle between the world and the individual. Nevertheless, by changing their identities, they spread the idea of disguise, making everyone blind to the truth of human
The poem, "We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is about separating Blacks people from the masks they wear. When Blacks wear their masks they are not simply hiding from their oppressor they are also hiding from themselves. This type of deceit cannot be repaid with material things. This debt can only be repaid through repentance and self-realization. The second stanza of “We Wear the Mask” tells Blacks whites should not know about their troubles. It would only give them leverage over Blacks. Black peoples’ pain and insecurities ought to be kept amongst themselves. There is no need for anyone outside the black race to know what lies beneath their masks. The third stanza turns to a divine being. Blacks look to god because he made them and is the only one that can understand them. They must wear their mask proudly. The world should stay in the dark about who they are. This poem is about Blacks knowing their place and staying in it. This is the only way they could be safe.
The poetical works of both Maya Angelou and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, "The Mask" and "We Wear the Mask", respectively, both convey agreeing and disagreeing views of personal identity through their voices of emotion. Both speakers mention the necessity of hiding their true identity. Dunbar speaks more to the unity of the mask, hiding a group, whereas Angelou speaks more to her own personal struggle. Both speakers mention outward expression in the face of adversity. Angelou speaks of laughter, whereas Dunbar speaks of smiling. Both speakers cry inwardly when they are suffering.
Nobody was better looking than anybody else,” (627). This quote shows that in Harrison Bergeron’s society, everyone is identical to everyone else. People are not allowed to be unique or different in any way, shape, or form. This is due to the immense pressure of society that forces people to conform. In this case, it is the Handicapper General, one of the most influential powers, that is oppressing the individuals to become similar as well as the common person who is going along with it. When the Handicapper General suppresses George, he is forcing him to conform to be “normal,” and when the majority of the population goes along with it, they are reinforcing the conformism. This idea is also reinforced in the poem, “Richard Cory.” When describing how society views the “perfect” protagonist, the writer explains “In fine, we thought he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place, (Robinson Lines 11-12). This quote shows how society has forced Richard Cory to be this perfect image of a man. Richard Cory was not allowed to be individualistic due to society’s standards. A good man was supposed to be rich, a gentleman, and happy. These qualities of a good person pressed in on Cory and made him become something that he was not. In the end, Richard Cory’s downfall is
Written in iambic tetrameter and in the plain English verse, the writer continually bombards the reader, through continuous repetition, the idea that the Negro hid his emotions behind "The Mask. " This is done to emphasize a sense of deception and belief that the average negro is a happy soul, rather than a "tortured [one]" (p 918,11) as Dunbar implies. The first stanza in itself is a lament of the "Negro's" conditions as perceived by the world. It is a representation of the past, in that the past is the speaker's past lament of the mask, not a past event in history/time. The first two lines of the poem, "We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-" (p 918,2) are incorporated to introduce the image White Americans see when visualizing the slave.
Richard Cory poems are a traditional type of poetry found all throughout different time periods. The poems range from the original to song variations, all contributing their own perspectives on what Richard Cory symbolized, and each takes their own distinct form. Richard Cory poetry usual contains the distinct ending of Richard Cory taking his own life, but each poem adds its own variations to this repetitive theme. Throughout the poems, there are also many similar themes, which portray a consistent theme of the American Dream and how it transforms. Many symbolic issues that deal with this dream are related to wealth, which is the most prominent reoccurring theme in the two poems. Whereas Robinson's "Richard Cory" focuses on symbolic issues of wealth during an early time period, Paul Simon creates a contemporary "Richard Cory", showing the transformation of the American Dream coinciding with the passage of time.
The irony in the poem portrays the theme that looks can be very deceiving. Richard Cory was the perfect man, or so it seemed. No one saw what was going on underneath his perfect disguise. In the beginning of the poem we learn that Richard Cory is perfect and rich. Through his suicide, we learn that even Cory, a perfect man, was not as content as he seemed to others. The common people had a distorted view of Cory. They thought Cory was happy because he was wealthy and came across as perfect when in reality, he had faults and suffered. His appearance was deceiving as he hid his suffering with a mask- his looks, his riches, and the way he kept himself. Since he appeared to be of a higher class and richer than the common people, it would seem as though he would have no problems. Arlington emphasized how Corey had everything with his use of repetitiveness using “And” at the beginning of each line describing Cory’s characteristics. The common people judged Richard Cory based on what they saw, assuming he had the perfect life with everything he had, rather than who he was as a person. In “Cory”, there is no mention of Cory’s life on a personal level. The moral of this is not to judge a person by their looks, but rather who they really are because who they really are can be
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet, describes the suffering that blacks were subjected to in his 1913 poem, “We Wear the Mask”. In his poem, Dunbar asserts that blacks are partially responsible for the suffering of African Americans due to their belief that a deceptive “mask” was necessary for their survival.
Masking is it a good thing or is it a bad thing. Masking is when an individual modifies their behavior or personality to adapt to different issues. People tend to mask their feelings to hide their emotions from others. Some people use masking to cover up their feelings from when they are being disrespected and want to retaliate. Social pressures, harassment, embarrassment, physical or mental abuse are a few issues that causes an individual to mask themselves. The purpose of this essay is to examine the cycle of oppression Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” in comparison to Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear The Mask” in regards to the poets understandings about concealing their feelings, being oppressed, and character.
In the poem we only know Richard Cory by what the people see and think about him. His feelings, other than when he commits suicide, are never truly stated. Throughout the poem the only thing we learn about Richard Cory are the images that the everyday people have of a man who is seen almost as a king. In the second line of the poem, the villagers express that they feel inferior to Cory when they say “We people on the pavement looked at him” (2). The people referring to themselves as “people on the pavement” might be inferring that the people are homeless; in their opinion Richard Cory is seen as a king “He was a gentleman from sole to crown” (3). and they are just his admiring subjects. Even the name Richard Cory is and allusion to Richard Coeur-de-lion, or King Richard 1 of England. Then, the public goes on to describe Richard as a true gentleman, “And he was always quietly arrayed,/ And he was always human when he talked” (5-6). These lines show that the public think that Richard Cory never truly came off as very wealthy because he believed that even the poorest person deserved politeness and respect. The word “always” in lines five and six could suggest that th...
For Richard Cory, the saying money can’t buy happiness, could not be more appropriate. He is, according to the people of the town, the man with everything. Everyone wished they could be more like him, “he had everything to make us wish that we were in his place”. In contrast Miniver Cheevy, had nothing to be admired for, he had done nothing with his life and yet he longed to have the adoration that Richard Cory had, the respect and almost kingly qualities, “he was a gentleman from sole to crown”. Miniver Cheevy wanted to be the hero that Cory was to the people on the street. “Miniver mourned the ripe renown that made so many a name so fragrant.”
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role over the life of African Americans, whom pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This ocassion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart and Miller 466). Through the utilization of iambic tetrameter, end rhyme, sound devices and figurative language, the speaker expresses the hidden pain and suffering African Americans possessed, as they were “tortured souls” behind their masks (10).
Paraphrase: A man named Richard Cory appeared to have it all: looks, a suave persona and a respectable social status. These qualities were respected and admired by the townspeople, even envied to a small degree. Despite his apparent perfect life, Richard Cory shot and killed himself.
We are able to gather the image of an extremely polished male who is not only a man but a gentleman. Richard is wealthy beyond measure and the people clearly lust for his riches. The metaphor throughout the poem which compares Richard to wealth teaches a strong lesson to the townspeople. The author closes this poem with the lines “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night / went home and put a bullet through his head. (15-16)” If we once again compare Richard to wealth, this phrase indicates that although the townspeople believe they will gain happiness from obtaining wealth, they may actually find that their calm is destroyed by wealth. Without the use of imagery and metaphor acting together throughout this piece of literature, it is my opinion that the reader may not have gained a clear picture of Richard Cory and his relationship of superiority with the people of the