Ozymandias: All Good Things Must Come to an End!

Spoiler alert: if you haven't finished reading Watchmen and don't want to know the ending of the forthcoming movie, don't read this!*************************************************

When I teach students about the graphic novel Watchmen, we usually talk about the significance of the name Ozymandias and the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem of the same name (find it online here: http://www.bartleby.com/106/246.html).

Let me quote the relevant part of Shelley's"Ozymandia." In the poem, a traveller explains that he once saw a statue of Ramses II (who was also known as Ozymandias).

And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

Although these lines suggest that Ozymandias had achieved something great and long-lasting during his reign ("look on my works"), the traveller of the poem explains that nothing remains alongside the decaying bust, but "the lone and level sands."

The inference to be drawn from the poem is that Ozymandias believed he had built a enduring kingdom, a legacy that would outlive him. However, Ozy's achievements are impermanent - the decaying statue and barren sands stand in contrast to Ozy's claims to lasting greatness. His reign and achievements are temporary, transient, ephemeral.

Ozy's hubris in the poem mirrors that of the similarly-named character in Watchmen. Adrian Veidt (AKA "Ozymandias") assumes that, by staging a fake alien attack, he has compelled the nations of the world to forge a lasting piece - a testament to Veidt's genius and benevolence. However, when the discovery of Rorschach's journal (which contains the truth about the staged alien attack) is foreshadowed at the end of the novel, it's implied that Veidt's triumph (like the real Ozymandias') will be short-lived.

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Now, a group of students may not make all those connections themselves; they need to be unpacked through discussion. Accordingly, I usually provide a bit of background on Ramses II, then pose the following questions:

- What "works" do the words on the pedestal refer to?
- How does Ozymandias feel about his "works"?
- How does the area around the statue look?
- Why does the traveller point out that the status is "decaying" and that "nothing beside remains"?
- What is Adrian Veidt's goal in the novel? What similar goals does he and Shelley's Ozymandias have in common?
- What happened to Ozymandias' "works" in the poem? What might happen to Adrian Veidt's "works" or achievements in the novel? What evidence do you have to support your answer?