Edward Arlington Robinson's Miniver Cheevy And Richard Cory
655 Words3 Pages
In Edward Arlington Robinson’s poems, “Miniver Cheevy” and “Richard Cory” the main characters are portrayed as men who are shunned from society and do not have any true reason to live. Though these characters do have some similarities, they are portrayed by Robinson in two completely different manners. Richard Cory is a man that people envy and he is admired by his surrounding peers whereas Miniver Cheevy is portrayed as a drunk and lonely man who people pity and look down upon. One man who seems to have everything takes his own life and another man appearing to have nothing continues to wallow in self pity and accepts his miserable life that he has established for himself. For Richard Cory, the cliche that “money can’t buy happiness” has never been more appropriate. Cory is a man who to the…show more content… Unlike Cheevy, Cory actually commits suicide within the words of the poem, whereas Cheevy hints at such action but does not act upon it within the poem. Cory’s action of suicide takes place throughout the very last line of the poem, “”. It is extremely ironic in how the entire poem has a positive upbeat tone until the very last unexpected line of the poem. In contrast to the positive tone portrayed in “Richard Cory”, “Miniver Cheevy” has a negative tone from start to finish. From the first line of, “Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn” to the last line, “” the tone is negative. Throughout the poem, Cheevy never has one moment where he is happy and appreciates life. He is too consumed with the thought that he was “born in the wrong era” to even attempt to be happy with the life that he was given. Both men are slowly killing themselves, just in different ways. When Cory puts a bullet through his head, it is extremely unexpected to the common people who knew Cory to be a seemingly happy gentleman whereas when Cheevy decided to drink his life away, the reader was not