We know Richard Cory only through the way that “We people on the pavement” see his exterior personality. Richard’s inner being, other than when he committed suicide, is never explicitly evealed. In the first fourteen lines of the poem all we learn about Richard Cory are the images that ordinary people (us) have from such a man who is almost seen as a king or a living god. First of all, in line two, the villagers demonstrate that they feel inferior to Cory when they name themselves the “people on the pavement”. This might have a connotation with homeless people or beggars; in their opinion, Richard is seen as a King “sole to crown” and them as his admiring subjects. Even his name, Richard Cory, evokes the name of the king “Richard Coeur de Lion”. Then, they describe him as a true gentleman, who was “always quietly arrayed” and “always human when he talked.” By these two lines the townspeople think that Cory never publicly displayed his wealth and that he believed that even the poorest man deserved politeness and respect. The way they use the word “always” before each of these sentences suggest that the images they have of Richard’s external appearance are seen as eternal truths. Moreover, the hero unconsciously strengthens these false ideas when he simply says “Good-morning”. It is easy to perceive their envy towards him in its richness by looking at the emphasis that the author put on line nine by adding the word, “yes”; “he was rich - yes, richer than a king”. They also see Richard as someone who is “admirably schooled in every grace”. When looking at the surface of this poem, the first three stanzas only show people’s willingness to idealize and honour a man that reflect their inside aspirations of having a perfect existence. They wish they could be just like him. Then, they realize that they are just workers and feel that they are stuck in this pattern (people on the pavement).
Looking deeper within this poem permits us to comprehend why the people are blind to see their own chance of having non-material values such as a good surrounding; which Richard Cory has not. In this poem, the collective "we" speaks as a unit. There is a significant contrasts between this “unit” and Richard Cory when this “unit” is composed of many compared to Richard who is alone. Cory, being set apart from ordinary mortals, has no other choice than to live on a material level. In contrast, the people; “worked, and waited for the light, and went without the meat, and cursed the bread” and finally, they went on living. Richard, wealthy as he was, did not live. Instead, he "put a bullet through his head”. Why? It seems that life was difficult for one and meaningless for the other. At least the people could bond together and thus use spirituality to survive their hardships, giving a sense to their lives. Moreover the author uses a lot of biblical references such as "Meat" and "bread" in his poem to support this argument; man does not live by bread alone, it is "the light" that gives meaning. Richard, having no real surrounding, was lost into darkness. So “on a calm summer night” includes the two characters co-existing and contrasting together. Calm to the people who are passively waiting for the light. The night to Richard Cory is totally desperate and filled with loneliness. The people’s blindness is found in the fact that they see only what they envy (material values, and wealth) and forget what really kept them alive; social unity.
Unconsciously, the people who are pushed to become blind by life’s difficulties, created a communication barrier with Richard Cory, creating the meaninglessness in his life. In the whole poem, Richard makes many attempts to communicate with others. Right in the first lines, when he arrives in town, the people immediately isolate themselves from him by looking at him from a lower level. Here again, there is a contrast between Cory’s actions and the people’s passivity ("on we worked and waited"). “Whenever Richard Cory went down town” suggest that Cory went in the village more then once. This, combined with the fact that Richard’s general way of communicative attempt was “always human” demonstrates that he really tried to talk with people. This allegation is proved when he said “Good-morning”. Moreover, he said it with fluttering pulses and he then glittered while walking; showing perfectly the attitude of someone feeling rejected by others. Besides, nowhere in the poem is it suggested that people try approaching him or even answering him. The people, in their adoration, have simply erected a barrier around themselves and it is very possible to imagine their only reaction to Cory is admiration and silence. Richard suicide can thus be seen as the result of the constant and unconscious worship of the people imprisoning him. So it is almost as if the people, unwillingly, pointed the gun at his head and Richard Cory was the one who pulled the trigger.
Finally, the beauty of this poem is found in the fact that the motive to Richard’s commitment to death will always remain a mystery. Thus, then studied in depth, the most interesting part is probably to imagine all the different interpretations that might lie under Cory’s suicide. To conclude, this situational ironic story shows that appearances do not always reflect the true picture of man’s inner being. Richard Cory is not a King; he is human.
