Icarus Suffering Essay

Artists and authors often tell a tale involving some form of suffering. One of these tales, Icarus, describes the story of a boy falling out of the sky. Throught the variations of this story, Icarus’s suffering is ignored. Both Author of “Musee des Beaux Arts,” W.H. Auden and Pieter Brueghel, artist of The Fall of Icarus, develop the theme of suffering in Icarus through their artistic mediums. Auden and Brueghel both use position of objects to show suffering. In contrast, the authors differ in the emphasis of Icarus’ misfortune and the addition of outside characters. To begin with, Auden and Brueghel both position objects and characters to develop the theme of suffering. Auden explains the ploughman's ignorance towards Icarus’s death. Auden states, “how everything turns away quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman …show more content…
The background information briefly mentions his father. The background information states, “King Minos imprisoned the architect and inventor Daedalus and his son Icarus on the isle of Crete. In order to escape, Daedalus built two pairs of wings with feathers and wax,” (Background 1).Here it’s apparent that Daedalus, Icarus’s father, present when Icarus was flying and fell. In Brueghel’s painting, Daedalus is shown trying to help Icarus. This alters the theme developed in The Fall of Icarus by changing the theme to “No one cares about human suffering” to “Only family cares about suffering.” As shown, the inclusion or absence of characters can change the development of the theme. In conclusion, The theme of suffering is developed throughout both pieces. Brueghel and Auden tell about the misfortune of Icarus, and the absence of empathy for human suffering. They both use position and details to portray suffering. Still, they differ in character emphasis and inclusion of outside characters. Through these pieces, the tale of Icarus and his unfortunate suffering lives