Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Research Paper

Jessica Lewis

Professor Turner

ENG 102 Paper 2

19 April 2017

Romanticism in Samuel Taylor’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

The widespread value of imagination and feelings throughout the eighteenth century is commonly known as Romanticism. Writers began to focus more on fantasies rather than reality. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of these writers. Starting with his first joint publication in 1798 with William Wordsworth, the quality of Coleridge’s work improved significantly; and ballads such as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was born. It carries Romantic elements, written as colors, an Albatross, and the supernatural and religious. Romance, in literary terms, is often defined as a work “characterized by a non-realistic and idealizing

Once the albatross is killed, the sea becomes “like a witch’s oils, / Burnt green, and blue and white” (1126). The colors, at the time, were associated with said oils used for spell and enchantments, which relates back to the fantasy aspect of Romanticism. One the crew dies, the water then turns “A still and awful red” (1130), like the color of blood from the deceased crew members. Red, on its own, is a very emotionally intense color compared to other colors. Romanticism also has a much greater emphasis on emotion than other literary

Although witnessed many times throughout the work, as seen in the colors and Albatross, the biggest appearance of the supernatural lies in the arrival of the specters. They appeared as “Death” (1128) and “Life-In-Death” (1128). Life-In-Death proceeds to bring forth the nighttime, as “The Sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out” (1128). A fantasy element already dwells within the supernatural, however Coleridge tends to go a bit further than simply having them exist as one. In layman’s terms, the ghost is also magical. As the night is summoned, the crew members drop dead one-by-one. Each one “cursed me [the Mariner] with his eye” (1128). It is not described how exactly this event occurs, however that is what provides the entire scene with a mysterious element as