Ozymandias

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  • Created by: saiki_ho
  • Created on: 15-04-18 02:46

Introduction

  • Explores the story of a narcissistic ruler in the Egyptian time, and how with the passing of time, he became forgotten
  • Present nature as being more powerful and permanent than humans
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Context

Shelley

  • Romantic poet (Involved in romanticism)
    • Movement in the late 1700s-1800s
    • Poets believed in emotions rather than reasons
      • Power of nature 
    • Disliked monarchies, absolute power, and oppression of ordinary people
      • His view is inspired by the events of French Revolution, where the monarchy is overthrown

Poem

  • Based on Ramesses II, from Egypt
    • Had colossal building projects
      • Narcissistic, hubris, had a great sense of self-importance
  • In Shelley's time, French revolution happened
    • Napoleon wants to take over Europe
    • Used this poem to show how history is repeating itself
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Form

  • Sonnet

    • With a turning point (Volta) at line 9 like a Petrarchan sonnet

  • Doesn’t follow a regular sonnet rhyme scheme and the Iambic Pentameter used is also often disrupted

    • Perhaps reflecting the way that human power and structures can be destroyed

  • The story is a second-hand account

    • Distances the reader even further from the dead king

      • Emphasises the unimportance of Ozymandias

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Structure

  • Narrator builds up an image of the statue

    • Focusing on different parts of it in turn

  • The poem ends by describing the enormous desert, which helps to sum up the insignificance of the statue

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Theme 1

Power of nature

  • Explores the theme of how powerful nature is, and how human power is only ultimately temporary

  • The poem focuses on temporary nature of the ruler’s power.

    • There is nothing left of his “works”

    • Even his statue collapsed

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Theme 2

Negative emotion-Pride

  • Explores how pride can lead to arrogance and overconfidence

  • Ozymandias

    • Presented as a ruler who abused power

      • Having a “sneer of cold command” and as arrogantly telling other rulers to looks at his works and “despair”

        • Suggests that

          • He thought everyone else was inferior to him

          • He treated his subjects badly

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Technique 1

Irony

  • Shelley described Ozymandias’s statue as a “shatter’d visage”

  • There’s nothing left to show for his great civilization

  • Ruined statue
    • Can be seen as a symbol of temporary nature of political power or human achievement
    • Shelley’s use of irony reflects 

    • His hatred of oppression

    • His belief that it’s possible to overturn the social and political order

      • Challenges

        • Readers to consider their own view of human achievements

          • Many people are similarly blind in their quest for power

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Technique 2

Angry language

  • Ozymandias stated that he’s the “king of kings”

  • Sounds arrogant and powerful

  • The tyranny of the ruler is suggested

  • Later, in the end, Shelley changed to describe the dessert instead as “boundless and bare”

    • Emphasises the reality that all his achievements became insignificant when compared to the dessert

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Conclusion

  • Similarities first

  • Differences second

  • Message third

    • Reminds powerful people that their power is only temporary. Powerful people may wish to think that their power is immortal, but they are only deceiving themselves.
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