Tej Johnson

Pre- AP English 9
Mrs. Shutt
2015

The depictions of Daedalus and his son Icaruss relationship are shown
differently and similarly by the poem, The Metamorphosis more specifically, the book,
Icarus , and the painting Daedalus and Icarus by Anthony Van Dyck. In the poem, the
relationship is described as troubling while in the painting its illustrated as exceptional.
In both works however, their relationship includes Icarus being to arrogant to listen to
his father.
In the epic poem, Daedalus was giving instructions to Icarus about not flying too
low or too high. The author, Ovid, writes The old mans face was wet with tears as if
Daedalus already knows his son will not listen and will end up dying. The relationship of
father and son is weak because Icarus is so predictable to not listen to his dad that
Daedalus already knew he wouldnt listen and began to cry.
The painting however, shows the father-son relationship fairly strong. Dyck paints
the two people, Daedalus and Icarus, together with the father urgently attempting to
give advice to his son. Icarus does seem to be paying attention because his body facing
toward his father and his hand up as if he is asking a question to clarify directions.
Daedalus does not look like he is crying or in anyway look like he knows his son will die.
This shows that they have a good relationship for Daedalus to trust Icarus to follow his
directions.