The Romantic Period on "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
... an eerie, dark feeling and setting the scene. This is helping with the intent for the later section of part I thru part VII that show the cold, alone and tormented feats that are soon to come. Along with the darkness it foretells, it too is telling you that the Mariner is about to be approaching a very life-changing occurrence with him and his crew about to come upon “the land of ice and fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen.” (Quiller-Couch, on the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, 2). All three of these examples are not only making the wedding guest realize that the Mariner did something horribly life changing but the reader too. This makes Coleridge’s audience to already be drawn into the story and to start realizing this man did something retched but realized he did so with the little hints he is dropping in his conversation through out the beginning of the poem. Another form of literary technique used in this poem to point out the moral of taking responsibility for your actions and not taking anything for granted, is the numerous amounts of symbolism presented and used in the poem. One of the examples of symbolism in the poem that supports the moral is the sight that is explained to the reader of the dead men one the Mariner’s ship. The dead men have supernatural spirits entering, leaving and then returning to their dead bodies while the Mariner is reflecting on the fact of himself doing the action that created the whole incident that everyone is now involved in. This action is symbolizing one’s battle with them as they have done something wrong or immoral and will not take responsibility for it and/or making excuses for themselves. Along with the dead shipmates on the ship is the dead Albatross. The murder of this bird is the sin in which was committed prior to the death of the two hundred shipmates. This sin, that was committed by the Mariner, seemed to have initially been a judgemental haste decision upon his stand point. After this senseless act from the Mariner, not only were his shipmates very skeptical of being anywhere around him because he took a living things life but for the fact that the albatross is a symbol of good omen to those of the sea. In return, the shipmates of the Mariner, took the dead albatross and hung it around the Mariner’s neck. It is figured that the albatross is around the Mariners neck to symbolize a earthly size weight, weighing down on is shoulders. Any human that felt they have done themselves or someone else wrong have felt like this at one point or another. This was the Mariner’s symbolized weight on his shoulders that was showing severity of the sin he had committed under the eyes of God. A very large segment of symbolism in the poem that helps to depicked the moral at hand, is when the Mariner was at sea for seven days and seven nights and found the snakes in the sea. During this time, he was not able to get his shipmates off his mind, for their bodies were still onboard and starting at him with their dead eyes, the albatross was around his neck (which has already been touched upon) and the fact that he could not pray. He was not given the chance to do any of these things to give him time to reflect upon the things he had done and allow the guilt to sit on his chest. The seven days and seven nights are symbolizing what was almost to be a “time out” for the Mariner to figure out what he had done. The guilt was finally lifted from him when the Mariner saw large sea snakes coming towards the boat. The snakes are what are not typically a beautiful, friendly creatures but the Mariner blessed them when he saw them and immediately the albatross dropped from his neck and he was lifted of not being able to pray and the shipmates where able to regain their souls and rest in peace. These examples of symbolism definantly show the importance of taking responsibility for your actions and to not take things, living or dead, for granted. Rhetoric served a very large part in this poem for helping with the overall moral of the story. The words and usage of language presents the illusion of the turmoil that the Mariner has incurred and his life long lesson he will carry with him forever. Coleridge also was able to get inside of the minds of his audience with his choice of wording and rhetor...