“The Unknown Citizen” and “Richard Cory” are both depicting ordinary, every-day-average-Joes, people having the wrong idea about extraordinary individuals.  W.H. Auden speaks highly of the consideration that is not present of the soul of the citizen, while Robinson’s shorter poem focuses on a broken, materialistic soul mistaken for a royalty-like, king of a man. The importance of appearance is challenged by the deaths of Richard Cory and the citizen because they were both viewed as perfect and they end up dying from earthly mistakes. This theme may be compared on the basis of their characterization, their social rank, and society’s perspective on the two characters. 
 Auden and Robinson characterize the main focus of the poem through the eyes of acquaintances who have witnessed or associated with Cory and the citizen and seen the challenge of the deaths of them. Robinson’s end to the opening stanza, “He was a gentleman from sole to crown, clean favored, and imperially slim.” suggest that the crowd and the middle-class viewed Cory’s outward appearance as royalty-like and, “richer than a king.” By viewing Cory as such a highly glorified individual, his death finally opens their eyes that he was just like them, broken and empty on the inside. Similarly, in “The Unknown Citizen” an extraordinary individual is, “in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint.” Similar characterization is shown in the third stanza of Robinson’s poem as Richard Cory is, “admirably schooled in every grace,” which describes how he is, like the unknown citizen , saint-like and by their deaths, people see the truth that the way the viewed or characterized them was wrong. Thus, the characterization of Richard Cory focuses on the royalty-like, king, and extraordinary person, while in Auden’s poem, the characterization focuses on the perfect-like personality of a citizen, both ending up in confusion and fooled people by the outward appearance of the men.

 Another similarity, which builds off the characterization of the two focuses of the poem, is that Robinson’s and Auden’s poem both have a similar character that has a similar social rank. In “Richard Cory” Cory is looked up to and the crowd wishes, “that we were in his place.” In the poem, the city admired him and thought that he was socially “the top man” of the city. Likewise, in “The Unknown Citizen” the citizen is socially viewed as, “popular with his mates.” The citizen was viewed by the government as just another hard-working saint that, “never got fired.” Both Richard Cory and the unknown citizen are similarly viewed by the ordinary crowd of the city as extraordinary men that are flawless and can do no wrong, until they discover the truth of their souls. However, while they were both socially ranked as popular, better-than-everyone-else men, the society overlooked the materialistic, dead soul of the men and ranked them by the eye pleasing appearance that only goes so deep. Thus, the similarity between the social rank of Richard Cory and the citizen proves the way that they faked their way through life and fooled the society into thinking they were fine, even though they aren’t.

 Along with these similarities, both poems have a society that has a similar look on the two main characters because they see them as super human beings. Robinson creates a society that admires and concentrates on Richard Cory’s outward look of, “clean favored and imperially slim. And he was always quietly arrayed.” Society has idealized Richard Cory, but truly they are blinded by his brokenness, his happiness, his freedom. Similarly, society has a perspective of the citizen that, “For everything he did he served the Greater Community.” Society sees his hard working, shy attitude, however his feelings, his emotion, his soul is not taken into consideration, nor is it defined. The images both poets depict of the characters are from society’s perspective, and that is not the real or true appearance of the men. Thus, blinded by the want-to-see appearance, society’s perspective focuses only skin deep, when the men are both hurting on the inside. 
 In both poems, the society, whether it be the  every day, normal people walking in the street or the government, creates two men (Cory and the citizen) that are not what they have been created as. They’re being judged by what they wear, how the talk, and even the amount of effort they put into life. By the basis of their characterization, their social rank, and society’s perspective on them, the challenge that appearance has on their death can be compared.