Power In Ozymandias

When does power become excessive? Percy B Shelley’s Ozymandias, tells the story of an Egyptian ruler and how power made him fall apart. Ozymandias symbolizes not only political power, but that art and language long outlast the other legacies of power. Throughout this poem, Shelley uses symbolism, diction and irony to demonstrate that all power is transient.
Ozymandias is a selfish ruler with an excessive amount of pride and thought of himself as superior to others. However, even those who hold so much power and feel as though they are indestructible will one day fall. The theoretical term of symbolism portrays this message. We first observe symbolism when the author is describing the lifeless destruction of the antique land “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the dessert. Near them, on the sand, half sunk a shattered visage lies,” (2-3). From this readers can infer that the broken statue represents the deterioration of civilization and culture. After all, the statue is a piece of art that was created, and now it—and its creator—has been destroyed. This same statue that is broken into pieces and has been stranded in an empty desert, may

His monument reads, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal Wreck.” (11-13). One may find themselves asking the question, “Why did Shelley choose to capitalize these three specific words in this passage: Works, Mighty, and Wreck?” However, readers can assume that these words were not coincidentally chosen. The author chose to capitalize Works and Mighty to show Ozymandias’ greatest accomplishments and the capitalization of Wreck shows the destruction of all his work. This portrays the message of the greater the work and power, the harder you are likely to fall, which one may clearly infer from capitalizing of these