Daedalus and Icarus

    The story of Daedalus and Icarus goes that Daedalus, the genius inventor, crafted wings of feathers and wax so he and Icarus could escape Crete. However, Icarus grew cocky, flying so close to the sun that his wings melted and he fell to his death. In Fun Home, Bechdel makes a comparison of her and her father to Daedalus and Icarus, which I think is the perfect analogy. Throughout the novel she and her father embody both of these roles interchangeably, which I'll explore here.

    At the beginning of the book, Bechdel illustrates her and her father playing a game of airplane, which she related to the Icarian games of the circus. She cryptically notes that, "In our particular reenactment of this mythic relationship, it was not me but my father who was to plummet from the sky" (Bechdel 4). As they are playing airplane, her father is Daedalus and she is Icarus, but this statement implies the opposite. Her father would be the one to plummet from the sky, which could be interpreted several ways. 

    A literal interpretation of Bechdel's mythical analogy would be her father's death, since he and Icarus have that in common. As Daedalus, Bechdel enabled her father (Icarus) to fly, which led to him falling to his death. Bechdel entertains the idea that she may have caused her father's death by telling her parents she was a lesbian. She also theorizes he may have made a deranged tribute to Fitzgerald by timing his own death 3 days before the death of Fitzgerald. This theory, however, she doesn't want to accept as it would mean his death had nothing to do with her, which she feels is the last bond between them. In reality, no one can say what really happened to her father, if it was even suicide or just a freak accident.

    At another point Bechdel more explicitly relates her father's character to Daedalus, "that skillful artificer, that mad scientist who built the wings for his son and designed the famous labyrinth... and who answered not to the laws of society, but to those of his craft" (7). The labyrinth she compares to the Bechdel home, which Bruce passionately restores to its original glory, and then some. She resents her father for being so devoted to the home that he neglected her as a child, and abused her family. On page 12, she wonders if Daedalus was really stricken with grief when Icarus fell to his death, or if he was just disappointed by the design failure. This shows her perception of her own father as a cold, detached tyrant that didn't care enough about her.

    Another interpretation of this plummet from the sky is a fall from grace of sorts, or no longer viewing her father in the same light. As a child, Bechdel describes herself as the opposite of her father, "Spartan to [his] Athenian, modern to his Victorian, Butch to his Nelly, utilitarian to his aesthete" (15). However as the novel progresses, she discovers her father's dark secret: he was a closeted homosexual that had affairs with other men and even boys. This highlights two revelations about parents that children experience as they grow up. First, our parents are not the omnipotent, flawless gods we once believed them to be. They are just grown up kids with their own issues they are still trying to figure out. Bechdel discovers that Bruce went to court for buying an underage boy alcohol, a crime with a sexual undertone that the judge noticed and sends him to a psychiatrist. Bechdel learns more about her father's various sins when her mother confides in her as another adult for the first time. After learning about all these things, Bechdel can no longer view her father in the same light. But the second revelation she discovers is that she has a lot in common with her father. They're both gay, for starters, and while her father doesn't feel comfortable talking to her about that, it brings them closer together. As Bechdel matures, Bruce begins to see her as an intellectual companion. He teaches her in his English class, and she describes feeling "as if Dad and I were the only ones in the room" (199). He recommends her his favorite books, and they spend more time together. Finally, Bruce briefly opens up to Bechdel about his sexuality during a car ride, and Bechdel recalls feeling "distinctly parental listening to his shamefaced recitation" (221). As Bechdel learns more about her father and his imperfections, he plummets from the sky in her mind: from Daedalus, the looming, malevolent presence, to Icarus, the confused, stunted son.

    In the myth, Daedalus warns Icarus not to fly too close to the sun. Icarus is prideful and ignores Daedalus' warning. The moral of the story is that you must practice humility and not let your pride consume you. As Count Dooku once said, "twice the pride, double the fall". As a direct translation this falls short, since Bruce never became consumed by pride. On the contrary, he was afraid to express himself and so he denied himself of what could have been. Bechdel is Daedalus here, as she openly accepted herself and managed to walk the path that her father could not. At the end of the novel, Bechdel asks the question, "What if Icarus hadn't hurtled into the sea? What if he'd inherited his father's inventive bent? What might he have wrought?" (231). She wonders what might have been different if he had expressed himself openly like she did, if maybe he wouldn't have killed himself, and found a way to live. She finishes saying, "He did hurtle into the sea, of course (front view of the oncoming truck). But in the tricky reverse narration that impels our entwined stories, he was there to catch me when I leapt" (232). Here I think Bechdel is grateful to her father for walking so that she could run. She also learned to avoid his mistakes in order to avoid a death like his.

    This Daedalus and Icarus analogy perfectly fits with the book and the dynamic between her and her father. I find it most interesting how both Daedalus and Icarus fluidly describe both Bechdels. Teacher and student, parent and child, antonyms of each other yet synonymous at the same time. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought, and if I missed anything.