Tyranny in Percy Shelly’s Ozymandias (Essay Sample)

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Tyranny in Percy Shelly’s Ozymandias
The sonnet Ozymandias by poet Percy Bysshe Shelley though deceivingly short is rife with vivid imagery, literal and stylistic devices, and thematic concerns. The poem explores the story of ancient Egyptian ruler Ozymandias as told from the perspective of a traveler from an ancient land. According to the poem, Ozymandias was quite boastful and pompous during his reign which has since passed and his extravagant symbols were destroyed by time and age. A key theme that Shelly addresses in the poem are the issue of power (political and social). He uses symbolism and thought-provoking imagery to paint a picture of the nature of power and its definitive qualities. While most of the allusions to power are general, the question of the excesses of tyrannical leadership is a major point of concern in Shelly’s powerful imagery. The poem features several depictions of excess and abuse of power including the statue of Ozymandias and the allusion to his egotistical nature. This analysis explores what point Shelly seeks to make with regards to tyranny and the excesses of leadership.
In Ozymandias, the poet seeks to expose the fragility and impermanence of tyrannical rule. The speaker in the poem is a traveller who describes what remains of a statue of the ruler Ozymandias. In the poem, the traveller states that “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” ( Shelley). He states further that the statue is inscribed by the words “King of Kings” and praise for the ruler it depicts. The speaker as the poem continues describes the statue as a colossal wreck signifying that its current condition he states that “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare”. The word of the traveller about the collapse of the statue is in stark contrast to how the statue would have been at the point of its sculpturing. With this symbolic state of the statue, Shelly addresses the fragility and transience of political power which is the ultimate fate of tyrannical rule. Shelly employs the derelict structural situation of the statue as the end that tyrannical rule suffers either by the passage of time or the natural laws of change. Tyranny and evil political power may flourish and poses the rosy allure of wealth and unbridled power when its rulers are at the helm. The success is however subject to the laws of nature which no man can rule over and which eventually result in the collapse and eventual ruin of tyranny. Shelly writes “Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”(Shelley) to explain the eventual collapse.
Shelly also alludes to the fact that tyranny is based on the ego and selfish satisfaction of the tyrant. Most tyrannical regimes are based on the ruler's intention to rule over the lands and subject based on what their self-love dictates and according to their selfish desires. Shelly explores this defining character of the tyrannical regime by placing great emphasis on the qualities of the ruler in his poem. Secondly, the poem is significantly co