Short So Quick, So Clean an Ending and Richard Cory - Essay Example

The paper "Short? So Quick, So Clean an Ending and Richard Cory" is a brilliant example of an essay on literature. Short? So quick, so clean an ending and Richard Cory are two poems that directly speak about human experiences. In both poems, the subjects end up committing suicide in order to run away from some form of problem. In both poems, the authors demonstrate that human beings can go to great lengths in an attempt to address the problems they face. Therefore, in these two poems, suicide is used as the vehicle to escape from one’s irreversible mistakes and avoid inflicting the suffering onto others. 

In Short? So quick, so clean an ending, the author shows that the subject had been suffering from some form of public humiliation; ‘After long disgrace and scorn’ (Houseman, 10). Therefore, in order to avoid this humiliation, the only option was to commit suicide. In addition, it is shown that he had to do so because he did not want to offend those around him: ‘You would not live to wrong your brothers’ (Houseman, 19). For this reason, self-inflicted death is a way to avoiding the spread of one’s suffering onto others.
Similarly, in Richard Cory, Richard committed suicide because he lacked something. Although the poem does not explicitly state exactly what he lacked, it is clear that it was something he could not change. Richard had everything; “And he was rich—yes, richer than a king” (Robinson, 9), and the people admired him. by looking at his appearance and wealth, the people thought Richard “was everything” (Robinson, 11). Although he appeared to lead a comfortable life, one day he “put a bullet through his head” (Robinson, 16). Richard appears to have lacked something others in the town had, and this made him look different. Whatever the problem was, Richard could not correct it by himself or use his massive wealth to change it. To avoid this humiliation and embarrassment, suicide is chosen as the best cure.
Both poems speak about a common problem across many societies today: suicide. In the modern world, there are numerous challenges people encounter. These could be related to their families, work, personal health or addictions. For some people, suicide has been the only way to get out of such problems. People consider suicide because they feel their problems cannot be solved by anyone, and the only way to relieve the pain is by dying. Feelings such as guilt, loneliness, loss, and hopelessness are common among many people today, and hence some might take this option to get away from them. In addition, as shown in Richard Cory, even those who appear to be comfortable might be battling some kind of problem, and they too might end up committing suicide.  Read More