Audens Musee des Beaux Arts
Apathy lies at the heart of W. H. Auden's poem, "Musee des Beaux Arts." Tob more specific, Auden addresses the issue of human suffering in anapathetic world. Auden is able to successfully prove his points byreferring to the sixteenth century painting by Brueghel that depicts theunfortunate fall and subsequent death of Icarus. The boy's death ispractically ignored by others in the painting, emphasizing the fact thatmost of us suffer alone. The poem convinces us that the old masters werecorrect in their thinking an idea reinforced with Breughel's painting. M. H. Abrams notes that Auden's poetry is characteristic of "combiningor alternating the grave and the flippant" (Abrams 2294). "Musee des BeauxArts" is an excellent example of Auden begins his poem by referring to howthe "Old Masters" were "never wrong" (Auden 1) about suffering. Hisreference to the old masters implies that the philosophers and artists ofthe past had a clear understanding that most individuals suffer alone. Notonly do most people suffer alone, but they do so while everyone else iscasually getting on with their lives. This kind of apathy can be seen when the poet points out suffering takes
Our eye is drawn to other eventsoccurring in the painting, such as the ship in the water or the ploughman. To makematters worse, those in the panting knew that Icarus fell and did not careenough to acknowledge the disaster. there is something wrongwith having to suffer alone, something tragic, and that something is notbeing ignorant of another's pain but having knowledge of it' (Hochman). However, Hochman observes that while the first stanza of Auden's poemrepresents a type of ignorance on the part of others who are simply livingtheir own lives, the second stanza is an interpretation of "the farmer,fisherman, shepherd, and ship as turned away, as forsaking Icarus"(Hochman). Interestingly, as Hochman points out, it is understandable how one couldconclude that the individuals in the painting do not even see Icarus. This image indicates that even while good things, such as a new birth, areoccurring, there is little interest in them. With this interpretation, the poet is making a more seriouscharge. He also makes the connection that "If the OldMasters were never wrong about the 'human position' of suffering, modernviewers who 'position' these paintings in sterile, inhuman museums are deadwrong" (Hsu). Breughel's painting captures this type of apathy by simply havingIcarus' legs appear in the lower corner of the painting. In fact, onecould easy overlook the legs because they are such an insignificant part ofthe entire landscape of the painting. Jhan Hochman notes that "the 'failure' of Icarus is of little importanceto those living and laboring, that, as a German proverb states, 'No ploughis stopped for the sake of a dying man. What is striking about this statement is the fact thatwhile one person is suffering, others are not disinterested or distractedby tragedies in their own lives, but simply by everyday ordinaryoccurrences. By pointing out that those whowere closest to Icarus and therefore able to help him, chose not do so,Auden successfully illustrates the sad condition of human compassion. While acknowledging the fact that most human sufferingis a single, rather than a shared, experience, the poet also realizes thatit is generally something more than that.
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