Summary AQA GCSE English Literature Power and Conflict Tissue x Ozymandias full mark grade 9 response
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
AQA GCSE English Literature Tissue x Ozymandias comparison essay, achieve 30/30 marks. It has a clear structure with astute comparisons, showing how to clearly format and write an exemplar response. I achieved a 9 in both English Language and Literature GCSE.
Compare the ways poets present the power of humans in ‘Tissue’ and in one other
poem from ‘Power and Conflict’.
In both Tissue and Ozymandias, human power is presented as fragile and temporary. In Tissue
Dharker uses paper as a metaphor for the fragility of human life or ‘living tissue’, whereas in
Ozymandias, Shelley employs a much harsher tone as he criticises the arrogant pharaoh in order to
emphasise the futility that human power has. Furthermore, both poems show man as powerless in
comparison to nature: Ozymandias statue has been crushed over time and in tissue the sun
overpowers any borders or attempts by man to establish control over the physical landscape.
In Tissue, Dharker explores ideas of human power by using the extended metaphor of paper as
representative of human life. Paper has an impact on human life in several ways – ‘fine slips’,
religious texts or even biological ‘living’ tissue. Humans throughout history use paper as a way of
recording important information or events, the main way we have been able to preserve and
remember knowledge is through people writing it down. Dharker explores the idea that paper can be
‘thinned by age or touching’, in this instance paper could be viewed as a metaphor for human life, as
humans age over time similarly to paper withering away with time. This therefore shows the fragility
of life as by comparing life to something as futile as paper, it emphasises its delicacy and
vulnerability. Alternatively, the paper ‘lets the light shine through’, light could be seen as a metaphor
for the human soul, and by showing how light attempts to shine through paper it could be reflecting
how humans attempt to be remembered by writing little bits of themselves into these fragile
documents. This however, does not work as paper ‘thins with age’ and was ‘never meant to last’.
Dharker hence shows human power as fragile by comparing it to delicate paper, and by showing how
mans attempt to memorialise themselves in writing is wasted, as their power will be lost with time or
‘age’. At the time of writing, Dharker’s husband was terminally ill with cancer, so the idea of human
fragility would be something prevalent to her at the time.
In Ozymandias the tone of the poem reads with contempt and wry humour, rather than the elegant
imagery employed by Dharker. Shelley presents the ancient Pharoah in a harsh, almost mocking way,
as the great pharaohs statue lies in a ‘boundless and bare’ desert, with a caption reading ‘look on my
works ye mighty despair’ and refers to himself as ‘king of kings’. This confident tone, and final lines of
‘ye mighty and despair’ may come across as chilling and show the cruelty of the pharaoh, however
falls flat as the pharaohs ‘works’ are now lost with time. Shelley therefore may have done this to
show, like in Tissue, how futile human power is as it can all be lost with time. The Pharaohs once
commanding, strong presence is now diminished as he is left with ‘trunkless legs’, and his head in the
sand, this could be implying that there is a lack of connection between the kings body and his brain,
which could thereby be showing that although he had presence, he did not have the intellect to
recognise the futility of his power and hence the limitations that human power has. Shelley was a
radicalistic, and was critical of those in power at the time – namely King George the Third – and so
may have presented Ozymandias as overly arrogant despite his unimpressive ‘works’, as a way of
subtly criticising those in power at the time of writing in order to show to them that one day their
power will be lost like Ozymandias’ and that their great power will not withstand time.
Furthermore, in Tissue Dharker explores the idea of nature as powerful over man. Dharker uses maps
as another use of paper and says that in these too light can ‘shine through their borderlines’.
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