Richard Cory

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Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson is about someone who was observed to be amazing and to be living the perfect life although that was not the case. While everyone was admiring Richard Cory he took his own life with a bullet to the head. The poem shows that the misery of others can be hidden well and that everything is not always what it seems. Edwin Arlington Robinson used hyperboles, a paradox, and diction to convey that not all things are always what they appear to be. Hyperboles are used to display the townspeople’s view of Richard Cory. For instance Mr. Robinson writes, “he was rich-yes, richer than a king”[9], to give the impression that the townspeople admire him and compare him to royalty. It also wants to clarify that not only is he rich but he is extremely wealthy. Mr. Arlington also writes, “ admirably schooled in every grace”[10], to indicate that he is graceful, smart, and hardworking. In addition it’s written that the townsfolk, “thought that he was everything”[11], which reveals that they didn’t just think he had everything they thought he was everything. In other words they thought not only he did he have a perfect life they thought he was perfect. …show more content…

Robinson uses a paradox to help establish that nothing is as it appears to be. The reader knows that Richard Cory is rich, smart, graceful, and appears to a have a perfect life, but when Mr. Robinson writes “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night/ Went home and put a bullet through his head”[15-16], that all changes. The reader is told how perfect and admirable Mr. Cory is and when really he is suffering and instead of enjoying that so called perfect life he ended it early with a bullet to the head. So although Richard Cory was perceived as happy, lucky, and perfect, while he was actually struggling and not at all living the perfect

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