The invisible woman in the background:

“Waiting for Icarus” (Muriel Rukeyser 1973)

An analytical essay
Introduction

The ancient myths of Greek and Roman culture have always been a source of inspiration for
various fields, amongst other things modern literature. While the main point of the stories
mostly stays unchanged and at most varies a little, the movement of Feminist Revisionist
Mythology aims to shake the stories to their core. Since most of the myths were written in a
time mainly dominated by the male part of society, the stories rarely incorporate women in an
important position that is not used for deception and trickery: “[T]here we find the sexually
wicked Venus, Circe, Pandora, Helen, Eve, and the virtuously passive Iphigenia, Alcestis, Mary,
Cinderella. It is thanks to myth we believe that woman must be either ‘angel’ or ‘monster’.”
(Ostriker 71) While there surely are myths that feature strong female characters, for example
Medea, Ariadne and goddesses like Athena and Artemis, the hero is male most of the time. This
revising category of literature now wants to emphasise the position of a woman: This is achieved
in retelling the story from a different perspective, removing the woman’s status as an inactive
object and challenging gender stereotypes. Muriel Rukeyser’s poem ‘Waiting for Icarus’ is one
example of a poem that tells a well-known story from a different perspective giving priority to a
woman’s point of view. In this poem, the position of the woman has been engineered into the
story, since the Icarus myth does not, at least in the commonly known version, incorporate a
woman at any part. In the following paragraphs of this essay this variation of the famous myth
will be analysed, especially focusing on the newly established themes following the feminist
revision.

Muriel Rukeyser’s poem ‘Waiting for Icarus’ discusses a part of the Icarus myth told from the
perspective of his most likely female lover waiting for his return. It consists of two stanzas with
eleven and ten lines respectively; while the first stanza mainly focuses on Icarus, the second
stanza shows the lover’s situation and feelings. In the following paragraphs the main themes
and concepts will be analysed and how they are told from a woman’s perspective.

A coming of age story: male audaciousness

Muriel Rukeyser’s poem ‘Waiting for Icarus’ retells the ancient Greek myth of Icarus who dies
because of his audaciousness. As the son of the famous craftsman Daedalus, who built the
labyrinth to contain the Minotaur on the island of King Minos of Crete, he is held captive
together with his father for the secret of the labyrinth to never leave the island. Using his
inventing skills Daedalus managed to create a pair of wings for his son and him which would
enable them to escape the island. As the wings are made of feathers and wax he advises his son

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several times neither to fly to close to the sea nor to the sun, since the water would soak the
feathers and the heat would melt the wax. Although Icarus listens to his father, as he feels the
exhilaration of flying he soars to high and plunges to his death when the sun starts melting the
wax holding together his wings.

Though Rukeyser’s poem is not told from the perspective of Icarus, the reader receives
extensive information about his situation and thoughts, due to the speaker’s perspective and
behaviour, which will be discussed in a later chapter. Most of the evidence about Icarus can be
found in the first chapter which is mainly focused on his promises. Icarus, permanently in the
shadow of his genius father, tries to escape from this relation by proving himself. He promises
the speaker that “everything would be better than before” (Rukeyser 2) and that they were “on
the edge of a new relation” (Rukeyser 3). With this Rukeyser add another dimension to the Icarus
myth: The most dreadful aspect of his life is not being held captive on the island but rather living
together with his father. He yearns for change and wants a better life together with his lover.

This poses the question how far the Icarus myth has been revised in this poem. Is the
premise of being stuck on the island still applicable? Throughout the poem there is no evidence
towards Icarus or the speaker being cooped up without any contact to the outside world. Even
a reduced prototype of a society is being implied in the second stanza, which will be described
at a later point. Also, like most stories in ancient mythologies feelings are often not handed down
in detail and reduced to simple motivations for actions. For example, in case of the Icarus myth,
the consensus has established a fixed series of events: Held captive on the island, Daedalus and
Icarus want to escape, build wings from wax and feathers, fly over the sea and Icarus dies from
his audaciousness. While in the original story there may very well be a component in which
Icarus suffers extremely under his genius father, but it has not reached the very well-known
version as a major component. Therefore, it seems to be Rukeyser’s variation on the original
myth which added this aspect as an obvious theme. In the next lines, she also encloses another
possible new point of view: Icarus hopes for his future and career. He wants to “never again
cringe before his father” (Rukeyser 4) and “invent full time” (Rukeyser 5). Icarus strives for a
similar occupation to his father and sees himself limited, while being with his father. As Daedalus
is generally known as an inventing genius, who could design a labyrinth so elaborate that the
Minotaur could not escape, his son was not able to overcome his father’s shadow. He sees his
flight as the spring board for his separation from his father, as he plans to “be back and […] drink
wine” (Rukeyser 1) with the speaker.

With these descriptions through the eyes of the speaker, Rukeyser seems to send Icarus
on a Coming-Of-Age journey which peaks at his flight over the seas and ends with his
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overestimation and death. Following a common practice in the Feminist Revisionist Mythology,
she emphasizes the dominantly male characteristic of overextending and audaciousness. This
ties together with a modern medical concept derived from this myth named the Icarus complex
by Henry A. Murray, which describes a tendency towards ascension and a craving for immortality.
Most importantly, per Murray, it also covers “a conception of woman as an object to be used
for narcissistic gains” (Rukeyser Camus’ The Fall: The Icarus Complex, 269). This woman is
implemented in this poem as the speaker, who is the female lover of Icarus. In the following part
the view of this newly prioritised woman at the side of Icarus will be analysed.

Mockery and insult

As previously mentioned most of what the reader learns about the speaker can be found
in the second stanza. Especially from line 14 the speaker describes her surroundings: since Icarus
did not return from his flight, she is starting to doubt her relationship and feels the pressure
from outside. “The girls laughing” (Rukeyser 14) are a surrogate for a society that mocks and
judges over the speaker’s loyalty and obedience. On the one hand this could be the
manifestation of malicious gossip that is often voiced in these kinds of situations, where a man
leaves without a trace, not only in the literary but also in the real world. One could also argue,
that this also represents the inner doubts the speaker has herself, even if she does not yet admit
them to herself. The fear of being abandoned and too being blind and submissive to see it. Going
a step further the speakers mother voices her opinion loudly and straight-forward. At first the
mother tries to comfort the speaker after being left alone by insulting him in a generalising way:

“I remember mother saying: Inventors are like poets, a trashy lot

I remember she told me those who try out inventions are worse” (Rukeyser 16-17)

While this may seem as an attempt to comfort her daughter, but it can also be the
author’s sideswipe towards herself. Being a poet herself she includes herself in the mother’s
insult, comparing poets to inventors like Icarus and probably Daedalus, though he is not
mentioned in the poem. With her second statement, she especially accentuates “those who try
out inventions” (Rukeyser 17). Looking at the same comparison between inventors and poets,
this could be a remark towards poets who take risks and stand for their work, which emphasises
a type of poet which Rukeyser, being an advocate for feminism, might consider herself a part of.

The speaker’s mother then turns the insult towards her daughter by saying that the
women “who love such are the worst of all” (Rukeyser 18). With this she poses the ultimate

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insult towards her own daughter coming from one of the most important people in a young
woman’s life. This point in the poem marks the final blow the speaker receives from outside,
while she already seems to be suffering.

The process of emancipation: developing confidence

However, throughout the poem the speaker undergoes a life-changing transformation

which is visible in the structure, the vocabulary, the pronouns and the used themes. The poem
is told in retrospective in which the speaker is looking back on herself on the day Icarus did not
return. She is at the end of her wait after having “been waiting all day, or perhaps longer”
(Rukeyser 19) and seemingly experiences an emancipating development while retelling her story
to the reader. The overall structure of the poem features an anaphora at the beginning of almost
every line. In the first stanza, the speaker begins every sentence with “he said” (Rukeyser 1) – in
combination with an indirect speech structure - making it seem as if she is telling her story to an
invisible listener or reader, which is never directly addressed.

The use of indirect speech also gives evidence to the speaker’s condition and view of the
situation and herself: She is retelling statements of Icarus which he told her before he left for
his flight in an almost self-assuring way. Moreover, she also directly quotes him in line 10 and
11 making her own insecurity evident due to her need to repeat his utterances word for word.
With this continuous repetition at the start of the lines the speaker wants to assure herself after
Icarus has departed: she herself is unsure about the situation in which she is abandoned only
left with his promises to hold onto. She repeats his promises in a mantra-like structure with a
fixed sequence of indirect speech acts that mainly use the male pronoun used to reference
Icarus, which makes it almost seem like it is uttered in a form of self-protecting trance.

In the second stanza, however, the speaker undergoes a rapid transformation: The lines
no longer start with a reference to Icarus’ promises, but with an anaphora consisting of “I
remember” (Rukeyser 12), which symbolises her beginning change. She no longer concentrates
on retelling his utterances but rather expresses her own experiences. However, these mainly
consist of the before mentioned moments of mockery and insult, which are again told in indirect
speech. Towards the end of the poem the speaker has reached another level of development:
The last three lines are no longer part of the all overshadowing anaphora, but stand
independently as the final stage of her transformation. The speaker eventually has a clear view
of her situation: While before, at the start of the second stanza, she describes the scenery she
can perceive from her position while waiting, she now focuses on the fact that she has been

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waiting for an extended amount of time. In the last lines, she voices her actual thoughts for the
first time:

“I would have liked to try those wings myself.

It would have been better than this.” (Rukeyser 20-21)

With this end to the poem she is joining the kind of people her mother previously
insulted: she wants to try it out herself. Given this poem takes place in some form of Ancient
Greece, women would most likely not be allowed to have the occupation of an inventor, since
this was and maybe still is a male dominated field of work. With this expression, she admits her
interest in this area and her ambition to do things males are allowed or inclined to do, even if it
would be mocked by her own mother. The speaker takes her hypothetical statements even
further by commenting that she would have been more successful than Icarus given the chance.
This ties together with the previously mentioned image of men and their audaciousness: If a
woman had the chance, the flight would not have gone wrong. In this final moment, the
speaker’s uncertainty transforms into defiance of her lover Icarus.

In conclusion Muriel Rukeyser’s poem is about the woman behind the scenes and her
gradual emancipation. Starting as an accessory to Icarus, she develops into a woman with her
own opinions and ambitions. She is confronted with social judgement and condemnation, finds
her voice and finally can see outside the established structure between man and woman.

Conclusion

By emphasizing a woman’s perspective in the Icarus myth Muriel Rukeyser transformed

the original story’s main point completely. Icarus is no longer held captive on the island of Crete
but rather lives there together with his father, his lover and various other members of a society.
While this changes the aim and chronology and position in the bigger context completely, the
for Rukeyser important point is still there: Icarus, driven by his selfishness and audaciousness,
fails, and in the case of ‘Waiting for Icarus’ does not return.

So, while the story seen in the context of the connecting myths does not fit anymore,
this creates a working basis to incorporate the view of a woman who is left behind and must
cope with the consequences but ultimate has the chance to develop confidence herself. It
successfully shifts the focus and revised the Icarus myth not by replacing the male part
completely but rather by asking the question: “What if a woman is confronted with Icarus’
reckless endeavour?”
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Sources

Primary Source:

Rukeyser, Muriel. “Waiting for Icarus.” The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser, edited by Janet
E. Kaufmann, Anne F. Herzog, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005, pp. 476-477. Print.

Secondary Sources:

Ostriker, Alicia. “The Thieves of Language: Woman Poets and Revisionist Mythmaking” Signs 8
(1982): 68-90. Print.
Sperber, M A. “Camus’ The Fall: the Icarus complex” American imago; a Psychoanalytic Journal
for the Arts and Sciences 26 (1969): 269-280. Print.