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How Is Icarus And Daedalus

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Charles Darwin introduced the theory survival of the fittest to illustrate the basic fact that the strongest lives and the weakest dies. Survival of the fittest, or rather survival of the apathetic is most relevant in Breughel’s painting “Landscape of the Fall of Icarus”, the poem based on the painting that goes by the same name written by William Carlos Williams, and W.H. Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts”. These three artists’ paintings are all connected by one central Greek myth, Icarus and Daedalus. The story is about a father, Daedalus, and his son, Icarus, who are both trapped in an island with no way of escape. Daedalus, being the master craftsman that he is, constructed two pairs of wax wings for him and his son to fly to freedom. Daedalus …show more content…

Auden dubbed “Musee des Beaux Arts” is a poem written around the basic human instinct that is survival. Auden refers to the painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by saying that “In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away/Quite leisurely from the disaster;”. The disaster being Icarus’ falling. The poet elucidated that people saw Icarus fall, but they turned away because Icarus didn’t know them, and they didn’t know him. Auden made the question that was going on in the villagers’ heads clear: Why should we care about Icarus? If the villagers cared about him, then they would have to care about every single other death that didn’t relate to them. Bringing chaos and devastation to the world because no one would have time to keep the world in order. Thus brilliantly, Auden made clear that the central theme in his poem is …show more content…

In the painting, by the choice of colors and showing the insignificance of Icarus. In Auden’s poem, by showing a supporting idea above that of Icarus’. And finally in Williams’ poem by adding adjectives to describe Icarus. Sometimes being egotistical is fine, and the three authors all showed it by relating to Greek mythology and specifically, Icarus’ story. Darwin made it clear that only a specific kind of human survives; the strongest. Emotionally, only the apathetic survives. Like in the real world, if something bad happens and everyone is grieving except one person, this is normal because he or she is just embracing their humane way of

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