![]() ![]() Beigi states, “the poem represents the Romantic imagination that rebels against long-established reason,” (79). It implies that the downfall of ancient Egypt is because of unfit rulers. The way in which the poem unfolds itself, it presents Ozymandias as a domineering and cold tyrant. If Shelley understood that art survives longer and civilizations survive less, what does that mean when he is writing Ozymandias? Shelley I suppose attributed the downfall of a civilization to a tyrannical king. Conjecturing the scholarly career of Shelley would serve for nothing but it is worth mentioning that art’s connectedness with nature is a grand motif of Romanticism in which Shelley is associated with. Maybe Shelley read Wordsworth at some point. Maybe, art, being a spawn of nature, lasts much longer in life than any other human fellowship. It could be a part of his romantic poetic identity that saw a connection between nature and art. Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, the hand that mocked them, and the hand that fed.” The author indicates the sculptor’s artistic endeavor survived longer than Ozymandias. Shelley states, “Tell that its sculptor well those passions read. It is the art that seems to outlast humans and human achievements. ![]() What the traveller and, by consequence, what Shelley knows comes from the artistic encapsulation of Ozymandias’s character on stone. Shelley emphasizes the artistic interpretation of Ozymandias by focusing on the artist that mocked the face of the king (791). Ozymandias’s ancient Egypt may not have survived but the statue’s inscription at the base remains preserved. In Shelley’s rendition of the pharaoh, Ozymandias’s manner of ruling must have been astringent if the sculptor had to carve it into the statue’s sculpted face. He appears to attribute the downfall of ancient Egypt to the breath and the way that Ozymandias ruled. Shelley immediately gives an answer to the downfall of ancient society. Following the image of the broken statue is a description of Ozymandias’s character based on his visage.īeigi explains that “Ozymandias presents an apocalyptic vision of the end of the history in its description of the arrogant and egoistic visage of the broken statue of Ramses II. Therefore, because Shelley presents the audience with the pitiful desolate chunks of rock that once were Ozymandias, he signals that ancient Egyptian society no longer is because of some reason. Obviously the statue is also Ozymandias because it is a “mocked” image of him. The statue is a symbol for the Egyptian King’s kingdom and its man-made buildings that signal human achievement and prowess. Shelley introduces Ozymandias by his statue which is a crafted project by human hands. Nature is the clean-up crew that reclaims everything that was once built, consumes it, and returns it to its original form. One could say that nature destroyed ancient Egyptian society, but nature here is secondary to Ozymandias’s actions. Shelley appears to blame Ozymandias for his kingdom’s downfall. He is described as an excessively prideful tyrannical ruler with a sneer of cold command. The way in which Shelley describes Ozymandias is pessimistic. So, why does Shelley have this negative view on Ozymandias? It is a look at how oppressive rulers harm their civilizations more than benefit them. ![]()
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