The German press is reporting that Adolf Merckle, who has been described as Germany's Warren Buffett, died when hit by a train. CNBC reported that Merckle committed suicide. He had lost a lot of money in a short squeeze on Volkswagen stock, but had reportedly obtained a bridge loan to shore up his investment company.
Somehow, Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem comes to mind:
Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went downtown
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim,
And he was always quietly arrayed.
And he was always human when he talked,
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good morning,” and he glittered when he walked
And he was rich-- yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grade:
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 calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1897)
In the comments below, some are debating why Richard Cory killed himself.
I think of George Orwell's line from "Benefit of Clergy" (his essay on Dali, included in this collection
I thought these comments might be illuminating:
"Richard Cory" is perhaps the best-known example of his respect for the inaccessible recesses of man’s inner being . . ." W.R. Robinson, Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poetry of the Act (1967)."The dramatist sets in operation a chain of circumstances in which his characters are unconsciously brought to book by their own past. The method of the naturalistic novelist is quite different; absolved of the necessity of a demonstration, he tends to be less and less concerned with incident and to become preoccupied with the effect of experience on character; the drama is purely internal and is revealed by minute and acute psychological analysis. When this method is applied to dramatic material the very absence of the terms in the demonstration essential to the dramatist produces the effect of irony. Consider, for example, Richard Cory: . . .
Here we have a man's life-story distilled into sixteen lines. A dramatist would have been under the necessity of justifying the suicide by some train of events in which Richard Cory's character would have inevitably betrayed him. A novelist would have dissected the psychological effects of these events upon Richard Cory. The poet, with a more profound grasp of life than either, shows us only what life itself would show us; we know Richard Cory only through the effect of his personality upon those who were familiar with him, and we take both the character and the motive for granted as equally inevitable. Therein lies the ironic touch, which is intensified by the simplicity of the poetic form in which this tragedy is given expression." Lloyd Morris, The Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson: An Essay in Appreciation (1923).
"They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town
with political connections to spread his wealth around
born into society a banker's only child
He had everything a man could want power, grace and style
But I work in his factory and I curse the life I'm living
and I curse my poverty and I wish that I could be
Oh I wish that I could be Oh I wish that I could be Richard Cory
The papers print his picture almost everywhere he goes
Richard Cory at the opera Richard Cory at a show
and the rumor of his parties and the orgies on his yacht
oh he surely must be happy with everything he's got
But I work in his factory and I curse the life I'm living
and I curse my poverty and I wish that I could be
Oh I wish that I could be Oh I wish that I could be Richard Cory
He freely gave to charity he had the common touch
and they were greatfull for his patronage and they thanked him very much
so my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read
Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head
But I work in his factory and I curse the life I'm living
and I curse my poverty and I wish that I could be
Oh I wish that I could be Oh I wish that I could be Richard Cory"
Richard Cory really does happen.
Like you, I found that poem in high school and it has stuck with me as one of my favorites.
He should have invested in Porsche instead.
Jim, I didn't know the poem. Thanks for posting it.
Sometimes the better-off are better off.
That's a bummer.
I like the Paul Simon version better, too. I think it better contrasts Richard Corey's "good life" with the quiet desperation and poverty of his employees. In Edwin Robinson's version, that is almost an afterthought.
The central mystery of the poem -- what causes someone who is not dealing with extremely adverse circumstances (painful terminal illness, great personal humiliation, long prison sentences, etc.; perhaps including Mr. Merckle) to commit suicide? -- has basically been answered.
Such people are suffering from serious clinical depression or some other serious mental illness, which are organic medical conditions that some people are very good at keeping hidden.
Obviously, it is no criticism of the poet that he wrote the poem without the benefit of the experience of the last century. But now the poem has outlived its setting, and just serves to mystify what should not be mysterious.
Sticking a label on something is not answering why it happens.
Robinson captures the nature of envy above the class warfare, and reminds us all to be grateful for what we have.
I grant you that I am not a doctor and I could not provide you with an explanation for the organic mechanism by which clinical depression and other mental illnesses afflict people. That said, do you have some other theory as to how it comes to pass that a person (other than a person facing extremely adverse circumstances) commits suicide?
There is a good biographical case for the former. Robinson's prosperous brother Herman, who had married E.A.'s sweetheart Emma, sank into fatal alcoholism after a major financial debacle reduced his family to poverty. E.A., who was relatively poor, assisted in supporting Emma and her children. Richard Cory was published in that period.
But there is no suggestion of misfortune in the poem, only the stark contrast of one "richer than a king", and those who "worked, and waited for the light..." Nothing suggests that Richard Cory's wealth was earned by struggle, or ever lost, by misfortune or otherwise. The image that Cory "glittered when he walked" suggests his wealth had a magical quality. So, from a hermetically textual viewpoint, ennui seems as likely. After long being automatically an object of adoration and envy whenever he "went downtown", Cory just didn't know what to do with himself alone at home "one calm summer night".
I have some young friends who are going through a complex of struggles involving illness in the family, a relative's failing business, and several other things. In addition, the husband is changing jobs, with a wife and child to support.
For various reasons, none of this is public knowledge.
However, several jealous acquaintances believe, due to the zip codes from which they came and in which they live, that the happy family are living spoiled lives of privilege and security.
There is envy involved, of course. But the other piece is that you just don't know. There are a million things which could have caused the mythical Cory to suicide, none of which have to do with his wealth or his method of becoming and remaining wealthy.
EAR and the Simon revision both imply a connection. None is necessary.
FWIW, people suffering from clinical depression do not glitter when they walk. Their dress and hygiene suffer. Their public self-presentation is not "glittering", mannered, polite and other-directed, and their conversation, to the extent one exists, does not linger on other people's issues.
How Annandale Went Out
Reuben Bright
The Mill, including this ethereal description of the Miller's wife's death:
"Black water, smooth above the weir
Like starry velvet in the night,
Though ruffled once, would soon appear
The same as ever to the sight."
Robinson's could do up little poems whose strict formal rhythm and rhyme nonetheless flow like effortless prose. I've always wondered, how the fuck could he do that? Amazing.
Sadly he spent too much time doing huge long things that I can't imagine anyone nowadays can read. Another feature of his age.
Lost riches EAR handled in: Bewick Finzer
Saying that there are thunderstorms because of "atmospheric conditions" strikes me as the rough equivalent of saying that people commit suicide because of their emotional state.
I grant you that I am not a doctor and I could not provide you with an explanation for the organic mechanism by which clinical depression and other mental illnesses afflict people. That said, do you have some other theory as to how it comes to pass that a person (other than a person facing extremely adverse circumstances) commits suicide?
I am not a doctor either, but isn't this backwards? That is, if brain chemistry is the proximate cause of our actions, shouldn't the brain chemistry of the person "facing extremely adverse circumstances" also be the cause of his/her suicide? Couldn't that action also be averted by messing with the brain chemistry?
Add to this the obvious fact that a lot of people in what you or I might consider "extremely adverse circumstances" have no thought of killing themselves. Obviously the "circumstances" aren't the cause, only their interaction with the brain of this or that individual.
I'm not saying that there aren't cases of depression that can be treated effectively by drugs alone, and that seem to have no obvious cause in the observable parts of the patient's life. But the idea that once you've established that someone is rich and much admired, you can put down any unhappiness he/she still feels to an easily treatable chemical imbalance . . . well, I really haven't the words. Except: Have you ever lived?
If Richard Cory were a case study, you would be right. But the poet specifically called attention to his wealth and no other issues. Therefore, it is fair to conclude that the poet was suggesting that his wealth was either a cause of his suicide, or his ennui with the wealth, or a statement that wealthy people are not necessarily happy people.
In any case, wealth is central to the poem, not anything else.
Maybe the reason Robinson didn't dwell more on Richard Corey's employees was because ... you know ... that's not what the poem was about?
I say that if you can find a physiological difference between grief at facing a "long prison sentence" and grief at the breakup of a friendship, the death of a pet, playing a disastrous violin recital, realizing you're never going to be a first-rate athlete, or any of the other things that cause people to despair, then go for it.
But if you can't — I mean, if it all looks much the same so far as brain chemistry is concerned — then all you're doing is deciding what's reasonable grief and what's "organic mental condition" based on your own idea of what's worth killing yourself over. Has it occurred to you that other people might not value things as you do?
"However, when an adult not facing extremely adverse circumstances goes so far as to intentionally commit suicide, it is reasonable to presume some kind of mental illness was at work."
. . . but only if your definition of and "differential diagnostic criteria" for what you are labeling "mental illness" are both so broad and vague as to be tautological, or empty.
First, one man's "extreme adversity", viewed objectively, is another man's day-to-day circumstance of life. It is not my impression that the suicide rate among residents of Zimbabwe, or North Korea, or among Congolese refugees, is orders of magnitude higher than that among middle-class residents of the US. . .
Over the last few centuries, a pretty large number of people have committed suicide, or "suicide by other", whether "other" was one's country's enemy's military, the local constable, the angry drunks in the nearest tavern, etc. A much smaller number have written clear rational explanations of why they have done so, or were considering doing so, and ultimately decided against it.
There is remarkably little evidence that all these folks shared some specific organic disorder.
Having been reading psychiatric/legal research on and off for 32 years (Thanks to USC Law School and Prof. Michael Shapiro for actually paying me to do so briefly!) I'm no longer even convinced that even those individuals who have actually all been diagnosed by licensed physicians as suffering from "depression" in 2008 share, with any certainty, any specific common organic disorder.
The "depression" label is useful for insurance reimbursement purposes; it may be useful for diagnostic/treatment purposes. It tells us remarkably little about the human condition.
I don't see wealth as the central feature of the poem. I see the guy's presumed golden cocoon being inadequate to protect him against whatever it is that got to him.
IOW, if wealth, the getting or maintaining of which was the issue, EAR has to indicate it. Otherwise he's cheating.
I see the point is that the plebs are puzzled about why somebody who has it all--from their point of view--could possibly want to leave in such a messy fashion. Doesn't wealth take care of everything? When you're way down, it would surely look like it.
Simon's revision leaves open the possibility that Cory has some discomfort with the how he gains from the sweat of others' brows.
But Simon doesn't say he's grossly underpaid. Just that the factory job is soul-destroying. More money would help, surely, but....didn't help Cory in the end.
I interpret Simon's version as anti-materialistic. The worker curses his poverty, but Cory had wealth and still killed himself. That suggests to me that something other than wealth ought to be our focus.
@RGS: I agree that there is a lot we don't understand about mental illness, including its biological mechanisms and how to distinguish it reliably from other human conditions. That said, depression and its association with suicide are well recognized.
People who have a bad day at work or have an argument with a friend generally do not kill themselves. I am indeed prepared to say that people who do are likely suffering from depression or some other mental illness.
People who are terminally ill, have suffered "great personal humiliation," or face long prison terms do not "generally" kill themselves either, do they? I don't see why those who do get exempted from your presumptive diagnosis.
And, again: if "depression" is a chemical state of the brain, the person facing the long prison term or the painful death or the ghastly humiliation is in that state just as surely as is the person in terminal despair over his ship-in-a-bottle model falling apart. You are calling some of these states of depression normal, and others mental illness, and you may be justified in doing so; but you are not justified on the grounds you advanced (that depression is just a matter of brain chemistry), because you haven't said that you can distinguish reasonable grief from mental illness on the basis of brain chemistry, and I doubt that you or anyone else can.
I read "Richard Cory" first in, I think, 8th grade, and the lesson I took from it then was that there's no cheap correspondence between the ordinary common "goods" (wealth, health, security, the respect of others) and happiness. I gather the "modern" lesson is to be that if anyone rich, healthy, and well-respected is profoundly miserable, he's obviously mentally ill, in need of a little chemical adjustment.
Lots of people in what seem hopeless straits do not kill themselves. Lots of people in what might seem to you relatively mild distress do. That's partly because your notion of the sort of grief that might kill a man is awfully limited. I mention "the breakup of a friendship" and you make it into "an argument with a friend." There are friendships as deep as marriages, and it would not surprise me if the irrevocable end of one killed someone.
My point (again) is that the mere discovery that depression is a chemical brain state doesn't mean squat if you're prepared to say that some people in some circumstances ought to be depressed, but can't distinguish them from the mentally-ill cohort except by saying that some things are right to be depressed about and others aren't. That's fine — that's pretty much how we decide now whose clinical depression needs to be let alone and whose needs treatment now — but don't try to argue that this is how we do things now that we know that depression is a matter of brain chemistry, and therefore "Richard Cory" is so dated. Not when you yourself would have no trouble accepting Richard Cory's suicide as perfectly rational if he were, say, about to serve 15 to life.
Just out of curiosity, how would you cope with the doses of Shakespeare we got in high school? I suppose Brutus' suicide in Julius Caesar was to avoid "great personal humiliation," but what on earth can we do with those crazy kids, Romeo and Juliet? They were both rich, well-loved by their families, and in good bodily health, and I can only conclude that their determination that neither could live without the other represented obvious mental illness. And maybe if it had been treated as such, everyone would've lived happily ever after; still, it's hard to make that point while teaching the play.
I did not think of depression at the time but pure unhappiness.
1. The subject of "Richard Cory" is an adult who commits suicide without any apparent reason. Accordingly, I deliberately excluded from my remarks above cases where people commit suicide in the face of what they perceive as a sudden disaster or fate worse than death, whether rationally or impulsively. I did not suggest that such people had an affirmatively "good" reason for suicide; I simply excluded them from my discussion. If the poem were about how Richard Cory shot himself after having been revealed as a child molester, or upon entering the late stages of terminal bone cancer, it would be a very different poem. Why some people commit suicide in the face of such calamities and others do not is a fair topic for discussion, but it is irrelevant to the point I was making.
2. If you are daring me to suggest that Shakespeare's tragedies sometimes present somewhat unrealistic depictions of human behavior, that is a line I may be willing to cross. In any event, the suicides in those plays are examples of suicides in the face of sudden disaster, as you concede, and so I don't suggest that they should be taken as examples of mental illness. The Robinson poem is not about how Richard Cory killed himself in the face of business reverses or upon the sudden death of his wife.
(For what it's worth: As regards Brutus, although his suicide could be attributed to his shame in defeat in the face of the extremely strong Roman code of honor, it is also true that had Brutus been captured alive, it would not have ended well for him. As regards Romeo and Juliet, they were adolescents, and I did qualify my remarks above at least once by noting that I was describing adult behavior. I wouldn't presume that an adolescent who commits suicide was suffering from mental illness, although surely some do.)
3. Yes, I do think that the modern recognition that depression and other severe organic mental illnesses exist, and that people who commit suicide without any apparent reason frequently do so as a result of such illness, make "Richard Cory" a less interesting poem to the modern reader.
His ancestors ducked the guillotine, he lost a billion. Bigt time investor. Obviously.
Hmm. I think you and I just read the poem differently. It seemed to me that the narrator could not know anything about Richard Cory apart from what was "in the papers." He's rich; he's much admired; &c. The other commenters here who are assuming Cory owns the company where the narrator works are already, IMO, assuming facts not in evidence.
So this man kills himself, and all we actually know about him is that he was rich, well-admired, well-spoken, &c. (Is there any indication anywhere that the narrator knows squat about his private life?)
That we don't know what cause he had to kill himself is part of the point. What we do know is that wealth and popular regard didn't protect him from whatever grief did him in.
I would not presume of anyone I didn't know personally that s/he did anything as a result of mental illness, unless it was something for which I couldn't think of an alternative explanation. There are, alas, lots and lots of alternative explanations for suicide; we are so bloody well equipped to feel pain, in all sorts of ways, and there is always before everyone a sure way of putting an end to it.
(For what it's worth: Yep, the historical Brutus would have faced something rather nastier than impalement on a sword had he been captured, though maybe not so bad as the place Dante gives him. As for Romeo and Juliet, does the case change so much if they're of age? Literature is full of lovers who died rather than forsake their loves, or died because their loves were lost, or killed themselves rather than live without their true loves. How much of this we're to attribute to "organic disorder" I don't know.)
Yes, I do think that the modern recognition that depression and other severe organic mental illnesses exist, and that people who commit suicide without any apparent reason frequently do so as a result of such illness, make "Richard Cory" a less interesting poem to the modern reader.
How? Seriously. "So-and-so just shot himself for no reason" and "so-and-so just shot himself because he had an organic mental illness" don't differ very much, because we have no idea what causes clinical depression apart from the obvious life shocks that we aren't talking about.
And may I plead for a clarification? Is there any physiological difference between someone depressed as a result of a horrific life shock and someone who's just clinically depressed? Do their brains look different? Is there any objective reason to consider one "ill" and the other not?
I am not an expert but there is objective evidence of various mental illnesses. Schizophrenia is pretty well documented: it emerges in a pretty standard way (in the early 20s for men, a bit later for women); twin studies confirm that there is a genetic component; there are functional differences that can be confirmed on a PET or MRI; there are drugs that have been shown to alleviate symptoms in some cases. There is similar evidence for depressive disorder but not as well developed; I think the MRI studies are currently under way.
Richard Cory
There may be an analogy from the arena of infectious disease.
Some people have weak immune systems and others have strong immnune systems. Those with weak immune systems will be afflicted at levels of exposure which will not affect the others.
I have a friend who said her BFF (a young woman) has the most astounding view of life, exemplified after the death of her sister, age twenty six, probably from bulimia. This person may suffer what others suffer with fewer long-term effects.
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