Exam 1

In Ovid’s “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus”, Ovid uses characterization to make the characters realistic and vivid and to reveal plot through the characters’ actions, thoughts, speech and physical appearance. Without the characterization of Daedalus and Icarus, understanding “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus” completely is not possible because of all the hidden details throughout the text.

Characterization is an author or poet’s use of description, dialogue, dialect, and action to create in the reader an emotional or intellectual reaction to a character or to make a character more vivid and realistic. When characterizing Daedalus, the first line of the poem says so much about him. “Homesick for homeland, Daedalus hated Crete and his long exile there, but the sea held him.” (Ovid 1-2). Daedalus hated where he was exiled to so much that he would do anything to get out of there, which you can tell by the homesick for homeland. Daedalus was an inventor and always using his head, but he was the type of smart that was mostly book smart and not all common sense smart. “Between the work and warning the father found his cheeks were wet with tears, and his hands trembled. He kissed his son (Good-bye, if he had known it)” (Ovid 30-32). From this quote, Daedalus is portrayed as ignorant and irrational. He has a young son, and knows that the likeliness of his son surviving is low, but he still wants to fly away from Crete. When Daedalus kisses his son, he has a feeling and knows that this is the last of his son because he is so young and immature like boys are at a young age. From this story, Daedalus can be characterized as smart, ignorant, irrational, and egotistical.

When characterizing Icarus, Daedalus’ son, one of the best parts that ...

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...ng his wings together started to melt, and he fell into the water and drowned. Daedalus’ nephew was in the temple high up with Daedalus just being a creative young man, when he was thrown out of the temple head first and also died, so the partridge stays close to the ground because of the accidents that have happened to the boys in the story.

After reading and analyzing this poem, there is a lot of hidden details and important information hidden in the characterizations of the main characters. Daedalus is an ignorant, self-centered, irrational, and jealous man. Icarus is a young boy who is foolish, inexperienced in life and immature. These characterizations lead the reader to a clarified understanding of the purpose of the poem.

Works Cited

Humphries, Rolfe. "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus." Metamorphoses. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955. 1. Print.