FREE ESSAY ON RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

Does Coleridge agree with the interpretation of the moral as given by the simple mariner,
as seen in the ending stanzas? After
this terrific bout with nature, and the deep messages which may be derived, the mariner
ends the poem by simplistically saying
that the moral is to just love all things. Yet the wedding guest seemed to get more from
this, as he was stunned and brings
thoughts of this tale to the next day, a wiser man. Perhaps all the narration shift has
to do with the fact that this simple mariner
is unable to perceive the deeper implications of his tale, which the wedding guest is
able to do. The wedding guest may act as a
certain catalyst to inspire deeper contemplation into this conundrum by the reader, who
may not perceive a deeper meaning
from the tale of the mariner.
We see the albatross as a sign of good luck, yet the mariner shoots it anyway. The ship
is floating in the middle of unfriendly
seas, already at the hands of nature. In the middle of nowhere, a great albatross
appears. Supposing that the albatross does not
just obtusely represent the whole of nature or Christianity/religion, what could it
represent? Its appearance is baffling: they are
in the middle of the ocean with no land around. At odds with nature, the albatross is one
with nature, surviving where nothing
can survive. Perhaps the ocean and the ship represent man's disunity with nature,
building these awkward devices to try to
thwart and ride against nature. On a different plane is the bird, where man's imagination
will allow him to flow with nature
instead of against it. The maturation process of the mariner begins after he denies
himself the imaginative luxury of enjoying
nature, slaying the albatross. It ends after a period of punishment with the mariner's
ship sinking, perhaps representative of his
denial of physical means to be one with nature.
Bibliography
I am a college student who has just complete this short essay on my thoughts about The
Rime of the Ancent Mariner.