Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Ozymandias'

For some people, the purpose of life is to be remembered, or to be able to leave a footprint for the future generations to admire, however, that is not always the case. In the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the author suggests that when an individual is too conceited or too self-indulgent, evidences of those qualities will be left from that time for the future generations to scrutinize and critique and eventually unveil the true nature of public figure with high status. King Ozymandias wanted future generation to admire him regardless of their current social status showing his arrogant nature. But ironically, there is nothing but his shattered sculpture left in a forgotten desert centuries later, and he is of no more significant than a regular pharaoh that can only be judged by the
The size of the statue is referred to as “colossal” and “vast” was emphasized, which is supposed to hint at Ozymandias’ mightiness and grandness of his statue. However, when the narrator described the sculptor had his mocking passions towards Ozymandias well read by the future generations destroyed the previous outstanding figure the narrator created previously. This reinforces the idea that even incredible achievements will be lost to time. While the statue’s face is shattered, it still conveys the unsympathetic nature of Ozymandias, it, too, ultimately reinforces the impermanence of human works. Similar to how Ozymandias wants to preserve his “reputation” and be known in the future, which failed when the traveller did not describe him to be a significant mighty figure, the artist’s work wasn’t preserved to its fullest either since the statue was trunkless, and the head was dislocated from its body, showing clear decay of the art. Neither the might of a king (Ozymandias) nor the skill of an artist (the sculptor) allows their reputation or the monument to survive the test of