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What is an example of situational irony in "Musee des Beaux Arts" excluding the miraculous birth?
Quick answer:
An example of situational irony in "Musee des Beaux Arts" is the reaction to Icarus's fall. Despite the tragic nature of Icarus plunging into the sea, the ploughman continues his work and the ship sails on without noticing, focusing instead on mundane tasks. This contrasts with the expected reaction to such a dramatic event, illustrating how people often overlook significant occurrences.
Situational irony occurs when events don't unfold as expected. Normally, we expect great fanfare to herald momentous events or events of great suffering. But often these occur on the sidelines, the poet argues, as people go about their daily lives. People are preoccupied by the mundane rather than the magnificent. One example in the poem, as noted, is the birth of Jesus taking place quietly and unremarked. The main event noted, however, is the story of Icarus, who in Greek myth flew too close to the sun, which melted the wax on his wings so that he plunged into the sea: the story is famous as an example of youthful ambition overreaching itself. In a painting by Breughel, Auden says, the painter captures the situational irony in Icarus's plight. Nobody is impressed with his fall:
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster....
Auden describes the "ploughman" who might have heard the boy's cry and splash but didn't consider it important and the ship whose crew might have seen the boy falling out of the sky but had other business to attend to and "sailed calmly on."
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