Compare And Contrast The Painting Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus

“Musee des Beaux Arts” by W.H. Auden and the Painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel both speak about society. The author, W.H. Auden wrote about three characters that represent our society today. Bruegel painted people and symbols that also represent society. Both the poem and the painting are based on the myth about the fall of Icarus. The myth stated that Icarus, the son of Daedalus was made a pair of wings from wax. He was warned that if he flew too close to the sea, his wings would become heavy and he would fall, but if he flew too close to the sun, the heat would cause the wax to melt. Icarus became ignorant and kept flying higher up until the sun melted his wax wings and he fell into the ocean. W.H. Auden and Pieter Bruegel create their representations of indifference in our society in similar ways through their use of symbolism and emotion. Auden and Bruegel used symbolism to create their representations of society. In the painting, Bruegel included a shepherd, fisherman, farmer, and ships. The shepherd, fisherman, and farmer did not pay any attention to Icarus as he fell into the sea and drowned. The characters Bruegel painted represent society. It shows how …show more content…
Bruegel illustrates the emotion of apathy through his painting of the ships, farmer, shepherd, and fisherman. In the painting, none of the people stop their daily work to help Icarus, who is drowning. This is also portrayed in the poem with the quote, “...and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.” The quote shows how even the ships which were nearby saw Icarus falling out of the sky, they did not make any effort to help out. Instead, the ships just continued to sail as if nothing had happened. This can also relate to our society which also often does not make an effort to help out those in