22nd Annual Student Research Conference
Ozymandias: Shelley's Warning Against Tyrannical Hubris
Zeeshan R. Reshamwala
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
Ozymandias was published by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1818. This paper will examine the historical context of Ozymandias, and the specific circumstances in Shelley's life that spawned the idea. Among the events I shall examine are Napoleon's fall at Waterloo in 1815, the French Revolution and the execution of Louis XVI in 1793. Connecting these events with Shelley's Prometheus Unbound (1820), which he began composing in 1818, the same year as Ozymandias, as well as Michael O'Neill's essay of the same name, I shall suggest that Shelley's poem was a warning to the British Government that London, the centre of imperial power, too could someday lie deserted in ruins like the once-great city of Ozymandias.
Keywords: Shelley, Ozymandias, Prometheus Unbound, Romanticists, New Historicism
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 14-1
Location: OP 2117
Time: 8:15