Where It All Goes Down
"Richard Cory" takes place "down town." Mr. Cory himself is not from there; it's a place that he visits. The folks who do live in this town call themselves the "people on the pavement." Compared to wherever R.C. comes from, this town is pretty humble—people work long hours and they don't have meat to eat. Richard Cory, and his riches, clearly stand out from among the regular ol' townsfolk. The setting, then, is another way for this poem to highlight the vast gulf between the speaker and Mr. C., heightening the shocking effect of his suicide at the poem's end.