Richard Cory is "richer than a king" and a "gentleman from sole to crown", he has everything that could be hoped for. The "people on the pavement" are shown as below him in status and circumstance and they regard him as the epitome of happiness. These people go hungry only eating bread and yearning for meat and wishing that they could be Richard Corey. It is the shift in the last line that shows the true Richard Corey, the person that the people would not want to be, the person that "put a bullet through his head". The shift has a significant role in this poem, because it denounces the facade of the man that "glittered when he walked".
The tone of the work also play a vital role. Words such as "gentleman" "clean" "glittered" "rich" and "grace" portray Richard Cory as what would be the happiest man alive. The mood is lighthearted even to the second to last sentence, "one calm summer night", The last sentence states that he shoots himself in the head and yet the line before indicates that the night was "calm" this irony of tone makes the last sentence a shock.
This poem is interesting because it portrays a rich man who has every material thing yet he is so depressed that he commits suicide, yet when he walks down the street he looks perfectly fine. The poorer people wish that they were him yet both are unhappy. Money appears to be the answer to the poorer peoples problems, but the suicide of Richard Cory proves that money does not guarantee happiness.
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