Literary Analysis Of Richard Cory And New Criticism

Richard Cory and New Criticism
Firstly, by looking at the language, in the first stanza we can pick out words such as pavement, which is the surface of the road that is constantly walked upon. The poet did not write “we people on the street” but “on the pavement”, putting them at the lowest level. Then, words such as “crown” and “imperially” both have kingly connotations and are associated with Richard Cory. In the third stanza there is the word “schooled” that can either be associated with the idea of teaching or strongly discipline with a negative connotation behind it.
Moving on to the use of allusive language, not much can be found, be maybe some allusions to the Bible or at the very least to the Christian religion with words such as “grace” and “light” and the phrase “cursed the bread”. Yet, these would best be suited in the analysis of …show more content…
Of course being slim can be seen as positive, yet, in a setting where people are scrambling for food, it is rather uncanny that somebody as well off as Cory would be slim. This suggest some internal troubles; it almost foreshadows his instability which will lead him to his death. Another paradox can be seen through the setting of his death. He kills himself “one calm summer night” which creates a tension between what is expected and what actually happens. The whole poem can be seen as ironical. The people all want Cory’s life and yet he is living the most miserable one out of them all. As for ambiguity, the meaning of the words is quite straightforward, it does allow interpretation through symbols, but does not necessarily have ambiguous meanings. As for tension, we can see instances of it through the rhyming schemes, through the social status of the characters and through the irony of having a character’s outward appearance so polished and king-like and yet his inner self is so miserable that it leads him to