Question 1: Pharaoh Ozymandias was a man that was of hubris, proud, oppressive and cold-hearted character. i. “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:” “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (P.B Shelley, 2013). According to lines 10-11. It is emphasised that Ozymandias sees himself greater than any ruler. He sees himself way essential than other kings. These words are written in the first voice, as if Ozymandias himself as he is telling us of his importance. He is boasting about all of his accomplishments, prosperity and success, which accompanied being a king. ii. “Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown” “And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command” (P.B Shelley, 2013). In lines 4 and 5 shows that Ozymandias ruled with contempt, …show more content…
Even though Ozymandias thought he would rule forever, everything becomes lifeless with time. The manner in which he ruled was clearly shown on half decayed and dismantled statue. Shelley is suggesting that human ambition will only take you at a certain point; it is only what one leaves behind that truly matters. In other words absolute power will eventually crumble without leaving trace of one’s existences. Folly and power is merely impermanent. Eventually we all die. These two words “passions” and “lifeless” are contradicting each other because passions and ones desires are supposed to keep you alive and happy, yet Ozymandias passions despair and only survived on a lifeless statue. (Bai ,2010) Question 3: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:” “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” (P.B Shelley, 2013). The sculptor gives an impression that he ridiculed the king, but yet he was the creator. The irony concerning lines 10 and 11 is that Ozymandias will not be remembered as a great leader or king. What he believed himself to be is twisted in the sense that the statue will not be a source of remembrance but a testimony of oppression to his people. (Shmoop, …show more content…
According to lines 2, the symbol of ruins is shown in the word “trunkless” this means that the statue is without a torso. This shows incompleteness of the statue. “Nothing beside remains: round the decay” ii. The word “remains” show that there was an empire there but the empire is gone by the time. The time is also changed Ozymandias works to be decayed things “Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare” iii. The words “colossal wreck” shows now that Ozymandias works including his big statue are just ruins and they are laid in the sands (Shmoop, 2014 and Bai ,2010) Question 5: “Of that colossal wreck boundless and bare” “The lone and level sands stretch far away” These lines convey the theme of power and nature. With the use of lines 13 and 14 the poem is able to advocate the evanescent nature of power. The poem states boundless and bare; lone and level sands stretch. The present place where the realm was governed by a Ozymandias once situated, now it’s nowhere to be found. (Shmoop, 2014 and Bai
Athena, the Greek goddess of both wisdom and war, is often considered the craftiest of all Olympian gods. She was born of a headache, and erupted from Zeus’ head fully armed and ready for battle. However, beside all this pomp, she is a rather caring, if war-loving, immortal. Throughout the entirety of The Odyssey she conveys an entirely platonic, almost motherly love for Odysseus. It is this that makes her significant character in Homer’s work. In The Odyssey, Athena is portrayed as a, if not the, major female figure throughout the entire epic poem. With her affection for Odysseus and her frequent appearances she plays a major role throughout the entire poem. Evidence of this integral role will be presented as proof of her importance to the story.
Throughout Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, the reader or viewer has the opportunity to see the story’s main protagonist make leadership decisions, and take actions, that range from critical to minor in terms of importance. But the fact is that Odysseus is a leader. And that is the key thing to keep in mind no matter how you experience the poem.
According to both Greek and Homeric values humans should have reason, but very often they express passion, which leads to contradictory emotions and obstacles in life. Odysseus, a man with a complex life, struggles with many internal, personal contradictions that have a collective impact on his decisions throughout his existence. The most important contradictions Odysseus faces are loyalty and betrayal; humility and hubris; and wisdom and folly,
Odysseus is known as a great war hero and leader who encounters and conquers unimaginable obstacles in his quest to return to Ithaca. This is understandable, given that Homer often uses Odysseus’ point of view in recounting his tortuous ten-year journey. However, beneath the surface is another perspective that is often overlooked, namely, that of Odysseus’ men who accompany him on this journey. Odysseus often glosses over his shortcomings as a leader and accentuates or even exaggerates his successes. If his men had been given more of a voice, it is likely that a different account of Odysseus’ leadership qualities would have been presented. For instance, Odysseus takes great pains to portray himself as an innocent victim and Homer’s readers generally accept this perspective. Odysseus’ hubris makes him careless when it comes to the safety of his men and therefore, an unreliable leader. Careful analysis of the scenes featuring Cicones, Aeolus and the Winds, and Scylla and Charybdis reveals that Odysseus often fails to transcend his own self-interest and ultimately he is the one responsible for the deaths of his men.
... Hades, Odysseus gets right to work on properly burying Elpenor’s body. Previously, he had disregarded his fallen comrade’s body and left it there to rot. After realizing he was wrong, he does his best to rectify the situation. Towards the end of the poem, Odysseus makes plans to make his huge sacrifice to Poseidon for he did much to anger the great sea god in the past. Through fatal mistakes, Odysseus is able to learn important lessons and change his ways.
While he does succeed, his plans go awry, and his life ends in ruin, due only to his hubris. Similarly, Ozymandias succeeds at what he sets out to do, but cannot foresee that his power will not be eternal due to his hubris. In both works, the main character tries and fails at defying nature, something which should never be attempted. Both authors, being Romantics, strongly believed in the sanctity of nature, and this showed through in their works. Through the fates of their characters, they show that the defiance of nature is futile, and that one should never attempt to be above
Although some could possibly call Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s The Odyssey, a great leader, the fact that he fails to earn his men’s respect, endangers his men’s lives repeatedly and allows them to die due to his own selfishness states otherwise.
In The Odyssey, Homer, or more so, the characters, often referred to Odysseus as the ‘Great Odysseus’. In the text, it is obvious to see that Odysseus demonstrates arrogance, charisma, over-confidence, and pride. Odysseus and his m...
Throughout Odysseus’s meandering and consequent homecoming in Ithaca, Homer depicts many different aspects of Odysseus’s personality in his epic poem “The Odyssey”. Although Odysseus is smart, brave, and is a great fighter, in reality, he is an overconfident madman. Throughout Homer’s classic epic, Odysseus uses his skill to overcome many obstacles. However, in each story, overconfidence is always a major theme, and Odysseus’s hubris always causes him to do crazy things. At the end, Odysseus’s arrogance is his fatal flaw, and leads him into trouble.
‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Shelley and ‘My Last Duchess’ have many links and similar themes such as power, time and art. ‘Ozymandias’ shows the insignificance of human life after passing time whilst ‘My Last Duchess’ speaks of his deceased wife in a form of a speech.
The poem Ozymandias tells of a king who was very powerful, people feared him. He created statues of himself for people to admire. Now all that remains of his power are remains. What remains of him are memories that are now long forgotten and that the wind carries away. Sand that stretches for miles and miles until it
We can gather from his warning that Ozymandias, as a man, was controlled by his Id. His cockiness is evident. The statue reads "Look upon my works and despair." Despair at the fact that you cannot be as great as him. "I am king of kings." He proclaims a bold statement. A statement that defies God himself.
This powerful epic poem reaches greatness on many levels. It is a poem which expresses the Homeric tradition of a classic epic work. However, interpreting Omeros as simply a modern day version of the Iliad or Odyssey takes away from the greatness of this work. Not only does Walcott borrow and play off ideas and themes expressed by Homer, but he brings his own life experience into the story and makes it part of the tradition. The way which Walcott uses Omeros to tell a great deal of the history of his native island of St. Lucia is remarkable. Walcott’s writing and telling of this epic poem is a credit to his heritage, homeland, and the classical tradition, and show that the epicpoem is still an outstanding work of art when used by a masterful writer such as DerekWalcott.
This poem describes a story told you by a passing traveler of a ruined statue of a king, Ozymandias, seemingly in a desolate desert. On the statue in is inscribed, “‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’/Nothing beside remain” (“Ozymandias” 10-12). Upon examination of the surrounding land, we realize that the once vast kingdom around the statue has been taken back by the desert, leaving the ironic message on the statue. This poem shows Shelley’s ideas of how all is temporary, especially mankind and our achievements. Showing romantic values, Shelley believed nature is much greater than man and no matter how big your kingdom, mather nature will always take back what was always
It is nature that destroys humankind when the sun disappears and the volcano erupts in “Darkness” and in “Ozymandias,” it is the sand and wind that causes the statue to fall. In Byron’s poem, humans lose the fight for their lives, and in Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias’s statue is powerless because it is lifeless, emphasizing the importance of the themes of life and death to the shared topic of destruction. Although they explore destruction using different language, they share the use of ideas about the destruction of civilization, and the fall of humankind because of nature, life and