The Authors Bret Harte And Edwin Arlington Robinson

Ziad K. Abdelnour states, “There’s a story behind every person. There’s a reason why they’re the way they are.” Authors Bret Harte and Edwin Arlington Robinson both wrote about different types of judgment that relate to this quote. Harte uses characterization to manipulate roles of people who are judged within the story of “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”; the use of characterization allows readers to comprehend that people shouldn’t be judged for what they do but rather for who they are. On the other hand, Edwin Arlington Robinson used rhyme scheme and irony in the poem “Richard Cory” to show that what people see isn’t always as it seems.
Often in literature, authors use characterization to help get points across within their writing. In “The

In the poem “Richard Cory”, Edwin Arlington Robinson uses rhyme scheme and irony to show that what people see isn’t always as it seems. Richard Cory, “Clean favored, and imperially slim.” (Robinson 662) was a rich man in a village. The townspeople would look at him as if he were a king. Edwin Arlington Robinson stated, “And he was rich-yes, richer than a king– And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked, and waited for the light, and went without the meat, and cursed the bread; and Richard Cory, one summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head (Robinson 662).” Through this poem, Arlington used rhyme scheme and irony to prove the point that what the townspeople could see wasn’t as it seemed. As readers read along the stanzas of the poem, they would probably think “hmmm… this Richard Cory seems to be having a happy life”. Ironically, it seemed that Richard Cory wasn’t living a happy life which is why “he put a bullet through his head.” Overall,this poem as a whole shows how Edwin Arlington Robinson used irony and rhyme scheme to his advantage throughout the poem by using Richard Cory to shock the townspeople and