Ancient Mariner Consequences

Samuel Taylor Coleridge?s ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner? is a piece known to many in some vague way or another. An elderly sailor, a ghostly ship, and the killing of an albatross are all present in many people?s minds, although they may not entirely know the whole tale. Although well-known today, the most activity ?Rime? has seen was in its beginnings. It has its fair share of praise and criticism, praise given posthumously and criticism given while Coleridge was alive. Other than criticisms on the actual text, many people claim that Coleridge borrowed the ideas of others and used them.

As the ghost ship nears, a spell is cast upon the ship and all of the mariner's young crew fall dead. The mariner is able to see the souls of his crew leave their bodies and it is at this point which he begins to feel remorse and guilt. "and every soul, it passed me by, like the wiz of my cross-bow!" (Coleridge 222). the mariner now knows that it was his actions that caused this and must take accountability for what he has done. Coleridge's use of the word "bow" in this quote is very important. It shows that now he does feel remorse for killing the bird because he feels it was as if his own bow killed those men. As the mariner begins to accept all f this information, he begins to realize that this is not his home. This is the home of nature and because he is a guest on these waters, he should appreciate it. "the many men, so beautiful! And they all dead and lie: and a thousand slimy things lived on; and so did I." (Coleridge 236). Now that the mariner has taken responsibility for his actions, he looks to God for forgiveness. Through prayer, he tries to ask for forgiveness but knows that in order to reach it, he must first repent. "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; but or ever a prayer had gusht, a wicked whisper came, and made my heart dry as dust." (Coleridge 244).

Now the ancient mariner was reprieved from the punishment. He was not hungry or thirsty, and had no more fear or any mourn. Under the help of the Hermit, the ancient mariner returned his home country, reborn as “a sadder and wiser man (ibid: 23).”

1. The personification, “The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel” (page 153) describes the action in this chapter. What specifically does the line describe?

“Great captain a fair wind and the honey lights of home are all you seek. But anguish lies ahead; the god who thunders on the land prepares it, not to be shaken from your track, implacable, in rancor for the son whose eye you blinded. … Though you survive alone bereft of all companions, lost for years, under strange sail shall you come home, to find your own house filled with trouble: insolent men eating your livestock as they court your lady. Aye, you shall make those men atone in blood! … Then a seaborne death soft as this hand of mist will come

In another case, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” tells a story about an old sailor, the Mariner, and his long and difficult journey across the ocean. The Mariner stops a man going into a wedding, who is called the Wedding-Guest, and insists on telling him his tale. In the beginning of the Mariner’s journey, his ship gets stuck in a never ending field of ice and fog. They have no way of moving, but then,

By killing the albatross, the Mariner sets in motion Christianity’s idea that all except Jesus are sinners, but through repentance one can seek forgiveness and ultimately salvation. However, Coleridge poses a dichotomy regarding the transparency of forgiveness in this ballad. After the Mariner blesses the snakes, the reader presumes the curse was lifted and forgiveness was granted. Although the “Albatross fell off, and sank Like lead into the sea” (288-91), the Mariner was compelled to serve a long-term penance of continually repeating his tale, also serving as a constant reminder of his sin. Where as Christianity teaches that by repenting one achieves forgiveness, Coleridge enacts the idea of retribution in order for the Mariner to ultimately attain God’s forgiveness. For example, one of nature’s punishments taunts the Mariner with extreme thirst, causing him to cry out:

Furthermore, the Mariner’s imprisonment is symbolized by ships. The sailor’s adventure is set about on a ship with one another’s merry company. Unfortunately, control over their ship is lost just as their luck. It quickly becomes a private prison for the Mariner following the sailors’ pitiful deaths. Ghost ships, Death and Life in Death, are seen arriving, playing a game of dice. This seals the Mariner and fellow sailor’s fate. The Mariner imprisons others by compelling them to listen to his story. “And he stoppeth one of three. –By the long grey beard and glittering eye, now wherefore stoppest thou me?” (Part 1, Stanza

It eventually turns out that those bars of prison are the shadows of Death’s dead and dying ship, but does this not allude to the approaching change in life that the Ancient Mariner suffers? He becomes trapped in life, to wander the earth forever, spreading his story--a prison of freedom, a cell made out of eternal life. A curse disguised as the world’s greatest blessing. He goes further to describe the boat when he says the line, “Are those her ribs through which the Sun/ Did peer, as through a grate?” This is, on one level, merely continuing the same vein of interpretation as mentioned before, both veins. But on another level, it describes the weariness of the Ancient Mariner, and the old and eaten-away shape his body has taken on over the years--his ribs sharp and bony against even the baggy of rags.

It is this admission of guilt that allows the process of forgiveness for the Mariner to begin. It also allows the Albatross to become a reminder of the Mariner's sin, a representation of Christ's suffering, and a symbol of the Christian cross. In lines 40 and 41 it says, "Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung."

The drop of the shipmates, the cracking of ice, and the roaring of the wind all appeal to the sense of hearing, while the Mariner rants his tale. As the ancient Mariner’s crew a;; die, he fails to hear a groan as they drop one by one; however, the sailor hears the thump of the bodies as, separately, they collide with the deck of the ship. The ice cracks, growls, roars, and howls as the crew travel through it; Coleridge writes that the ice is “like noises in a swound.” ”And soon I hear a roaring wind,” states the Mariner during his tale; Coleridge also writes that “the upper air burst into life,” which causes the crew to hear a strong breeze. Using the sense of feeling, Coleridge writes about the drop of the shipmates, the cracking of the ice, and the roaring of the wind.

He illustrates his belief that he does not need the good luck of the Albatross. He decides to severe his bonds with the universal cycle of life and love. Following the execution of the Albatross, the Mariner’s luck suddenly changes. He experiences the punishment that comes with the moral error of killing the Albatross. The punishment is isolation and alienation from everything but himself. Thereafter, the "Nightmare," the life in death, kills his crew. He is lost at sea, left alone in the night to suffer, and he has detached from his natural cycle. The Mariner proclaims his misery when he says, "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! / And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony". To the Mariner, nature has become foreign. The execution of the Albatross causes physical and spiritual decay.

For reasons not specifically mentioned in the text, the mariner kills the albatross, which can be easily related to a couple of infamous Christian sins.

Symbolically, the sea is what keeps him apart from the world and that creates exile. There are a lot of symbols and images being used to prove the writer's point: "In icy bands, bound with frost, with frozen chains, and hardship groaned around my heart." (9-11). The images represent how he feels and how he sees his life at that moment. Symbolic gestures such as, "The song of the swan might serve for pleasure, the cry of the sea-fowl, the death-noise of birds instead of laughter, the mewing of gulls instead of mead." (19-22), suggest that sounds can play an effect on a person.

The lines that follow deal with death and punishment.  Part 3, describes how the sailors' "throats unslaked, with black lips baked, We could nor laugh nor wail; Through utter drought all dumb we stood!  I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, And cried, A sail! A sail! "  Then all the shipmates die "Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one."  And so the ancient mariner was "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!  A never a saint took pity on My soul in agony."  He sat