Ozymandias

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• Sonnet.
• Turning point at line 9.
• Doesn’t follow regular rhyme scheme, reflect the way human power and structures can be destroyed.
• Iambic pentameter, often disrupted.
• Second hand account, distances reader from the dead king

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

• Builds up image of statue by focusing on different parts in turn.
• Enormous desert, insignificance of the statue.

Question 3

Irony

Answer 3

• Nothing left to show the ruler’s great civilisation.
• Ruined statue: symbol for the temporary nature of political power or human achievement.
• Reflects hatred of oppression and belief that it is possible to overturn social and political order.

Question 4

Language of power

Answer 4

• Focuses on Ozymandias’ power, represents human power.
• Power lost, only visible due to the power of art.
• Nature ruined the statue, nature and time have more power than anything.

Question 5

Angry language

Answer 5

-The tyranny of the ruler is suggested through aggressive language

Question 6

Feelings and attitudes: Pride

Answer 6

Ruler was proud of his achievements, called on others to admire what he did.

Question 7

Feelings and attitudes: Arrogance

Answer 7

Inscription shows the ruler believed he was the most powerful ruler, no one could compete. He was better than those he ruled.

Question 8

Feelings and attitudes: Power

Answer 8

Human civilisation and achievements are insignificant compared to the passing of time. Art has the power to preserve elements of human existence, temporarily.

Question 9

The power

Answer 9

• Narrator meets a traveller who tells him about the statue in the desert.
• Statue of a king, ruled over past civilisation. Face proud and arrogantly boasts about how powerful he is in an inscription.
• Statue crumbled, fallen down, ruins remain.