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Musee des Beaux Arts: Human Suffering - Paper

Musee des Beaux Arts: Human Suffering

"Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden

The central conflict in the poem revolves around individual human suffering, and the collective indifference with which this is viewed by human beings in general. This premise is inspired by a Brueghel painting depicting the fall of Icarus, which Brueghel saw while visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels (Lemon8 Design and Development). While Icarus falls, it is for him a highly shocking tragedy, but nobody else in the painting gives the fall much attention. Indeed, everybody is busy with his or her own life, complete with its own tragedies, sorrows, and trivialities. Auden seems to make a comment about human indifference to suffering, as ...

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view suffering other than their own. Children pursue what is important to them - play, without giving any thought to the all-important miraculous birth. Dogs, equally uncaring about miraculous births or torture, care only about their "untidy corner" of the world, whereas horses are innocent of what pain their bosses are able to inflict. The poem ends with the central subject of the painting, and the specific example of the subject depicted by Auden, Icarus. Icarus is the symbol of tragedy. He fails, falls and dies.

Auden uses the structure of the poem to visually present his conflict. The first part of the poem is a general depiction of suffering and the indifference to this suffering. Whereas he names specific instances of suffering, the poet does not put a name to any of the persons engaged either in suffering or in indifference. He only refers to them only as "the aged" and "children". The same is true of artists, who receive the general reference of "Old Masters" ...

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Musee des Beaux Arts: Human Suffering. (2016, April 9). Retrieved April 30, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Musee-des-Beaux-Arts-Human-Suffering/105542

"Musee des Beaux Arts: Human Suffering." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 9 Apr. 2016. Web. 30 Apr. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Musee-des-Beaux-Arts-Human-Suffering/105542>

"Musee des Beaux Arts: Human Suffering." Essayworld.com. April 9, 2016. Accessed April 30, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Musee-des-Beaux-Arts-Human-Suffering/105542.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/9/2016 03:42:02 AM
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1199
Pages: 5

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