Grade9 GCSE English My Last Duchess& Ozymandias Comparison Essay
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
Full mark Grade 9 response to comparing how power is presented in Ozymandias by Shelley and My Last Duchess. AQA Power and Conflict GCSE English Literature. 30/30.
Compare how power is presented in My Last Duchess
and in Ozymandias (30)
In both ‘My Last Duchess’ and in ‘Ozymandias’, the idea of ephemerality of human power and its
evanescence is adumbrated thoroughly by both poets. They both elucidate this through
hegemonic male figures that are spoken of through inanimate objects; In Ozymandias the focus is
on the cynosure of the statue and in My Last Duchess the focus is on the painting. The
discrepancies in the form of the poems and the way their power is obliterated, is where the key
differences lie.
Both poems elucidate power as tyrannical and controlling; through depictions of the Duke’s and
Ozymandias’ vainglorious nature. In both poems, the protagonist deems themselves to be
hegemonic like God; through which Shelley and Browning highlight the megalomania of those in
power increasing so much that they start believing that they’re sanctimonious and start to express
God complexes. In my Last Duchess, immediately before beginning negotiations, duke also tells
the emissary to admire the statue of Neptune “taming a seahorse" made by a famous sculptor. By
drawing the emissary's attention to this statue before the negotiation, duke implies that he
himself is a God like figure like Neptune who will tame the emissary and the Count. Hence
Browning reveals the trappings of the aristocrats are a means for Duke to control people. The
taming in action is further reflected in the caesuras of the final line; although the poem is
predominantly iambic, the word ‘Taming’ in the line doesn’t tie in with this structure. By doing
this, Browning moves away the established metrical pattern, like the way the duke hopes to break
and tame his new in laws. By using a pattern associated with dominance and controlling the
duchess in a section about meeting the in-laws, Browning foreshadows that the duke shall
continue to tame and break down his in-laws' objections.
Furthermore. The duke accentuates the statue's aesthetic merit as a means of imbuing himself
with more importance; venerating the statue as a “rarity” created just for him. Through this,
Browning critiques such patrons during the renaissance that were more concerned with the social
clout conferred by being associated with certain artists than they were with the actual artwork
itself.
Similarly, in Ozymandias, a change in structure is also utilised by Shelley to reinforce a new idea;
here Ozymandias elucidates his hegemony yet ironically, he had been obliterated by time and his
‘hegemony’ is being talked about through someone else's perspective. Ozymandias had used an
epithet for himself, “King of Kings”; which is an antonomasia used generally for God particularly in
the Bible. Hence, Shelley highlights the arrogance that lies within those in power; like the duke.
However, in contrast to My Last Duchess, Shelley introduces a new idea of the perennial and
inevitable decline of power over time. In this line, “King of Kings,” the rhyme scheme highlights the
hollowness of Ozymandias’ words as nothing of these lines follows the expectations of the sonnet form; The
meter is similarly a bit off in these lines. Line 10 has 11 syllables rather than the usual 10, while line 11 has
the idea of how even the mightiest of tyrants being obliterated by time. The dactylic rhythm – fall in each
metrical unit – also refers to the fall of Ozymandias over time and how its statue transmogrified into “half
sunk” and “shattered”. Perhaps Shelley uses this poem as an aphorism of “all power is temporary” and
critiques the fall of Emperor Napolean – and created this poem to serve as a warning to those who seek
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