Christian Allegory in "The Rime of an Ancient Mariner"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of an Ancient Mariner" is a lyrical ballad that seems more like a miniature epic. However, not only it is a ballad talking about the adventure of an old mariner who is cursed for life because he kills an albatross; deeper than that, it is also a religious allegory conveying numerous themes pertaining to Christianity. On the one hand, if one reads "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" simply as a tale at sea, the poem stands remarkable because of its simple rhyme and easy flow. On the other hand, if one reads deeper into the intricate details, symbolism, themes, and literary aspects, Coleridge will therefore have produced a masterpiece.
Furthermore, many critics agree that there are several religious connotations in this ballad; however, very few agree upon it being a religious allegory carrying a main religious theme that reflects Christian beliefs. This paper will discuss all the possible religious notions conveyed in Coleridge's artwork.
Christianity preaches that life is a trial by which we either pass and go to heaven, or fail and go to purgatory. Also, the human body is a victim of the human thought and action, which is represented by the soul. Therefore, in relation to the ballad, we can refer to the ship as the human body and the Mariner who steers the ship and leads it to destruction as the human soul. This ship led by the Mariner goes through a trial of storm and winds, but fails because of the Mariner. In Christianity, when a person is over with the trial (dies), his body rots away, "
for dust you are and to dust you will return," (Genesis 3:16 19), and the soul remains alive, either tortured, or pleased. The ship sinks. However, the Mariner becomes a captive of Life-in-Death (purgatory) and remains perpetually cursed for the mistake he has done.
Another symbolism conveyed through Coleridge's ballad is the Albatross that symbolizes Jesus Christ. When things start to fall apart in the ship, and the storm destroys all, the Albatross appears as a good omen that saves the ship from the remnants of the storm. Just as the time when Christ was born and things gradually started to improve, sick people were healed, the blind saw, the deaf heard, and the mute spoke.
"At length did cross an Albatross,
The main theme of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem is to learn from your mistakes. After telling his tale to the Wedding Guest, the Ancient Mariner realized that the murder of the Albatross was a mistake and lived a life of penance. The act of murder was an impulsive act because the Mariner felt threatened by the Albatross their actions. The deaths of both birds brought about memories from both the Ancient Mariner and Hagar which they shared with other people, the Wedding Guest and Murray F. Lees. These memories help them to realize the mistakes they made. Through their own personal recollections, the Ancient Mariner and Hagar both achieved a better understanding of their lives and in turn were able to die with a sense of contentment and relief.
To begin with, the killing of the albatross signified the love that Christ had among his people, and the execution he was forced upon in order for the hope of reassurance of his people. “Is it he? quoth one, “Is this the man? By him who died on cross, With his cruel bow he laid full low The harmless Albatross. The spirit who bideth by himself In the land of mist and snow, He loved the bird that loved the man Who shot him with his bow.” (Lines 398-405). Samuel Coleridge dignifies the crucifixion of Jesus Christ with the execution of the albatross. Religious symbolism reflects the apocalypse meaning throughout the killing of the albatross.
Furthermore, Wordsworth’s assertion of feelings as the effects of an action or a situation, which means that actions should influence the emotions of the character and not the other way around, is dissimilar to The Raven’s character’s feeling of desperation in which he succumbed to his distress. However, the lesson derived from the bizarre workings of the human mind in preferring more devotion to the pain for the sake of “preserving the memory,” as “The Raven” illustrates, exposes to us how a particular person behaves towards grief. The statement thus proves in relation to Coleridge’s statement of the readers’ elicitation of the poem is more significant than the poem itself (in reference to his emphasis on the importance of the “Return”). Another variation between Wordsworth and Coleridge is that the former claims that the writer must bring the language near to the language of men, whilst the latter believes that the language of poetry should beautiful and elevated. “The Raven” in this case
The mariner reconciles his sins when he realizes what nature really is and what it means to him. All around his ship, he witnesses, "slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea" and he questions "the curse in the Dead man's eyes". This shows his contempt for the creatures that Nature provides for all people. The mariner begins to find his salvation when he begins to look on the 'slimy things' as creatures of strange beauty. When "the mariner begins to find his salvation when he begins to look on the 'slimy things' as creatures of strange beauty" he understands the Albatross is a symbol of nature and he realizes what he had done wrong. The mariner is forgiven after sufficient penance. The mariner's experience represents a renewal of the impulse of love towards other living things. Once he reconciles his punishment is lifted. The bird, which is hung around his neck as a punishment, falls into the water and makes the change from punishment to penance.
He has to feel a pain in his chest that becomes unbearable until he sees a certain soul that is the right one to tell. No matter what. In the long poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge has three lessons about human life: supernatural, pride, and suffering. In “Rime” by Sam Coleridge, the mariner goes through many supernatural events that scare him into submission. Coleridge does a great job of describing the scenery around the boat that the mariner resides in.
Overall “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is poem that seems like a simple story told by a sailor about his woes at sea. But Coleridge uses many details to make symbols throughout the story for the reader to interpret and see the connections between it and religion. Whether it be through the Christ like albatross, which most would just see as a simple bird, or the woman on the boat showing how the lifestyle might be fun but ultimate leads to nothing we see that these small details create a bigger story than what is just on the cover.
The albatross is the main idea, so it plays a huge role in the theme of the poem. It enhances the mystery, suffering, pride, and adventure that the poem portrays throughout the story line. The poem’s main theme is transformation in that the Mariner starts out as a sailor who does not appreciate the superstitions or the albatross that in turn ends up blessing the ugly sea creatures as an act of redemption. The poem states, “He prayeth best, who loveth best all things both great and small; for the dear God who loveth us, he mad and loveth all” (Coleridge, 1680). When he prays for the sea creatures, he is showing how he loves all the creatures, big or small, created by God himself. All of these themes were brought on by the single act of the albatross. The tone of the poem is fear and admiration. The albatross developed these qualities by causing the Mariner fear when he did not know what was going to happen to him from the effects of killing the bird. The admiration of the poem was seen when the Mariner saw only the greatness in life, such as the sea creatures.
...ous allegory represents Christian ideals such as sin, forgiveness, and prayer. In addition, Coleridge’s use of language and form contribute to the message conveyed in the text. The form fluctuates throughout the text by use of different rhyme schemes, loose meter, and stanzas in length varying four to nine lines. The variety of form could be representative the array of interpretations of this text. Coleridge conveys profound religious meaning by using symbolic language with interpretive representations. Although his use of elevated language possibly narrowed the audience, that could have been his intentions due to the complexities of this philosophical poem. In the end, Coleridge’s depiction of the Mariner’s journey ultimately conveys the Christian ideal, which is to love and appreciate all creatures created by God, whether Albatross or snake.
However, in the two works by Coleridge, the imagination takes on different roles in each world. In the Ancient Mariner, the imagination is the substance that holds all life together, much like how the millio...
In the story of, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” the mariner learns that he must think about the people around not just himself and his dumb decisions, because they can lead to hurting or even killing the people surrounding him like they say in the story, but he also learns that nature is greater than mankind and can build or destroy anybody at any time. The mariner in the story doesn’t think about his crew or anything else really. He ends up doing something devastating that affects the whole crew but mostly hurts himself at the end.
In one brief stanza, the Ancient Mariner ruthlessly kills the albatross with no provocation. The gloss that accompanies the fatal blow to the albatross elaborates on the event and says, “The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen” (432). Coleridge is packing many layers of significance into this one stanza, this one action. The Mariner’s assault on the bird is unwarranted, it rejects hospitality, and it is an attack on the pious, or the religious. The crew cannot explain why the Mariner rejects the bird; they plead to God to save him from the “f...
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.
In discussing the symbolism of guilt in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", it is important to understand that in the eyes of the Romantics God was one with Nature. Because of this belief a sin against Nature was seen as a sin against God. In line 82 of the poem, the Mariner simply says, "I shot the Albatross." In saying this, the reader often questions why the bird was shot. There is no explanation. The Albatross was shot without reason or motive very much like the sin of humans. Here the poem begins to take on its allegorical purpose in which the Albatross symbolizes not only sin, but possibly Jesus as well. In Christianity, Jesus died upon the cross for the sins of humanity. He was punished in order for ...
Directly after killing the albatross, his ship is stranded for days, the tossed about in cruel storms at a supernatural speed. The Mariner prays for forgiveness day after day. Despite this, his entire crew dies, “With a heavy thump, a lifeless lump, they dropped down one by one,” (216-219). Eventually the hung albatross on his neck is broken free as a symbol of his freedom. However, his penance is not fulfilled yet.
Nature never ceases to move; it is always moving in some way. However, nature can be thrown off balance and affect earth’s creatures. Coleridge displays the balance between creatures and nature in his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. In his poem, an albatross is murdered by a ship worker; the worker is cursed because of his malicious act against nature. As a means of punishment, nature stands still; Coleridge writes, “Day after day, day after day,/ We stuck, nor breath nor motion;/ As idle as a painted ship/ Upon a painted ocean” (Coleridge).