Richard Cory Modernism Essay

Modernism literature works were breaking the rules of the Victorian literature era. The post World War 1 writing style was designed to emphasize the inner-self and consciousness. "Richard Cory" is a Modernist poem. Elements like the time period, the target audience, and the idea about all truth becoming relative reinforce Modernism.
Edwin Arlington Robinson published "Richard Cory" in 1897 which falls around the Modernism time period of the early 1900s to 1965. Being so close to the beginning of Modernism Robinson's poem is considered to be Modernism.
The target audience of this poem is the lower to middle/working class. Modernist writers wrote pieces of the people. Richard Cory, in the poem, was a person who people looked up to and the "people on the pavement" didn't see how he was hurting just like they were. The authors of Modernist literature targeted this audience to give them a world outside of their own, like
when they look up to Richard Cory they see that everything is perfect and okay on the surface.
The biggest shock in the poem is the last line when Richard Cory takes his own life. Robinson shares a truth with his audience that money can't bring happiness to people. Readers get the inner feelings of the workers who wait for the light and curse the bread and the people who are richer than a king. The truth about both groups is they are unhappy and the workers think Richard Cory is happy because he has money but Modernist writers make all truths relative.
The Modernist poem, "Richard Cory", has the correct time period, target audience, and truths being relative which are all qualities of being Modernism literary works. Robinson makes his poem emphasize the inner-self and consciousness that post World War 1 writers did.