Romanticism in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “OZYMANDIAS”

Romanticism shows interest in immortality. During his time, Ozymandias is a king who believed in immortality. He could manage number of people to work and build a great high beautiful statue. By making that “everlasting monument”, he imagined that his power would be last forever as he also becomes immortal and be a leader forever. He built the statue of him to glorify and represent his power, tried to let everyone knows that the statue would stand forever. He was very proud, over proud about his power and achievement. He believed that the statue proved that he have to be respected and proper to govern.

The power and beauty of nature is the main characteristic of romanticism. In Ozymandias, we can see how man built a great beautiful statue, as the writer expressed it in sentence “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair”. Trough this statue, we can see Ozymandias try to present a great comparison for nature. The statue built on a desert so it has no other things can be its comparison. Its beauty can be seen clearly as it stood alone in the desert. We can see the ability of man to make nature become more and more beautiful through works; statue, monument, building, etc.

In the other hand, the poem Ozymandias also shows the power of nature. In this poem, we can see that nature destroys the great statue which symbolizes the king’s power and immortality. Nature, which is the only truly powerful, was taken over the statue "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay” Nature proved that it cannot be defeated by human works. The statue becomes decayed, broken, and isolated in desert.