Characters In Richard Cory, By Edwin Arlington Robinson

Judging Humans judge, they sometimes try and deny it, but the fact remains that they judge other members of their species. Humans create their opinions based off of the people dress, behave, the cars they drive, who they hang out with, or just their skin color. These opinions that are applied to large groups of people such as views of African Americans or Asians typically come from stereotypes. These include opinions such as feeling men are above women, African Americans are prone to commit crimes, or that homosexual men are girly and unmanly. This is not always the case. There are some women who are quite stronger than men, African Americans who uphold the laws better than a caucasian, and homosexual men who are just as manly as a straight …show more content…
From the way a character acts towards another person to the way the person behaves, all these tell you about the character’s feelings and how they are. The author uses characterization to show their theme mainly by how the characters act in certain situations. The poem “Richard Cory” does a great job of showing how judging people does not always lead someone to the truth about another. Edwin Arlington Robinson tells about a man named Richard Cory who is “richer than a “king” (1288). This would lead the audience to believe that Richard is happy since he does not have to worry about money. This opinion that is by both readers and the townspeople alike is quickly changed as Richard Cory commits suicide. (Robinson 1288). Richard Cory was rich but that did not make him. His wealth separated him from others leading him to kill himself out of loneliness. Had someone seen that Cory was unhappy and not the stereotypical happy rich person they could have changed the outcome for Cory. The short story “The Cask of Amontillado” also shows what happens to those who judge someone based on outward appearances. The main character of this short story openly tells the reader he plans to have his revenge on Fortunato and pretends to be friendly to him (Poe 183). Fortunato accepts the character’s friendship and without any second thought. This leads to the character being able to easily kill Fortunato (Poe 187). So the readers of this short story can clearly see that Poe wanted them to see the danger in accepting friendship from everyone who is friendly to them. The main character showed no ill intentions towards Fortunato, but really planned on killing him the whole time. His friendly attitude was masking his deadly intentions, had Fortunato been able to see past this instead of accepting the friendship with open arms, not questioning anything he could have seen the true intentions of