Q. 1. Consider The Ancient Mariner as an allegory of guilt and regenera on.

/sin and redemp on/ reconciled himself to God's crea on, but before he can be fully healed, he must reconcile himself to
restora on to god God as well. So at the end of Part V, we are told:
Reduced to its lowest terms, The Ancient Mariner is a simple allegory of guilt and regenera on. It is The man hath penance done, And penance more will do.
divided into seven parts. Beginning with the commission of guilt in Part I, each part tells of a new stage
in the process towards regenera on, ll Part VII concludes with whatever redemp on is possible in In Part VI, the process of healing seems to be impeded. The Mariner is haunted by the presence of his
the case. The en re process is depicted as it would appear to a conscience sharpened and clarified dead comrades and feels that he is pursued by some fearful power of vengeance:
with imagina on.
Like one, that on a lonesome road
At the end of Part I, the Mariner shoots the Albatross, but nowhere does he explain his mo ves in
shoo ng it. He might have killed it in a moment of annoyance, or anger, or mere frivolity, but we aren't Doth walk in fear and dread,
sure. This uncertainty of the mo ves is quite important. It may show perversity of will, or lack of And having once turned round walks on,
understanding of the purpose behind the world's crea on, or lack of apprecia on on the Mariner's
part of the worth of God's crea on. Whatever may be the exact nature of the crime, Coleridge makes And turns no more his head;
it more serious by giving the Albatross human and even superhuman dimensions. The bird is hailed in
God's name 'as if it had been a Chris an soul'. It is very friendly with the Mariners. It is accepted as a Because he knows, a frigh ul fiend
welcome guest, and for nine days it shares their food and play. Then almost suddenly, but most
wantonly and recklessly, it is killed. This killing is not something trivial; it signifies the viola on of the Doth close behind him tread.
sanc fied rela ons of the host and the guest. It is a symbolic representa on of 'the essen al frivolity
of many crimes against humanity and the ordered system of the world'. According to C.M. Bowra, 'in the figure of the Mariner haunted by memories and fears' Coleridge gives
his special symbol of remorse. But because remorse brings repentance and humility, the sec on closes
In Part II, the Mariner's shipmates become accomplices in the crime. At first they condemn the Mariner with the vision of angelic forms standing by the dead sailors. The forgiveness of God awaits even the
for having killed the bird of good omen. But when the fog clears off and a glorious sun shines in the most hard-hearted sinners if they will only be ready to receive it."
sky, they approve of his ac on:
The last part brings the story to its end. The Mariner reaches back his own country. He meets the holy
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, Hermit, confesses his guilt and is shriven and restored to a place among living men. With the sinking
of the ship, most of the visible traces of his crime are obliterated but the punishment of Life-in-Death
That bring the fog and mist. con nues to be at work. The memory of the hideous act he once commi ed becomes so insistent at
mes that he is forced to give u erance to it. This brings him relief. In a way, he is regenerated.
It means that they judge of an ac on not by any absolute standards of right and wrong but by an
arbitrary criterion of its u lity to themselves. In this part of the poem, the corrup on and the This interpreta on of The Ancient Mariner as an allegory of guilt and regenera on brings it a new
helplessness which are the common a ributes of guilt are transferred to the physical world. The ship dimension. It saves it from being a fanciful tale of nightmarish horrors and makes it per nent to life
is suddenly becalmed. Bloody sun stands right up above the mast and shines scorchingly in a hot and and its fundamental issues.
copper sky. The ocean begins to rot. At night, death-fires dance and water burns green, blue and white,
like a witch's oils. The tongues of the mariners are withered at the root because of u er drought. In
an effort to throw the en re guilt on the ancient Mariner, they hang the dead Albatross round his neck.
In Part III, with the appearance on the scene of the phantom ship with its ghastly crew, Death and Life-
in-Death, the forces of retribu on are set into mo on. The Mariner's condi on is metaphorically
suggested when he feels that, as the ship comes close to them, the sun is flecked with bars. Death and
Life-in-Death play at the dice. The Mariner is won by Life-in-Death while the sailors fall to the lot of
Death. Accordingly, they all curse him and then drop down dead one by one, their souls passing by him
like the whizz of his cross- bow, with which he had shot the Albatross. He survives them for, his guilt
being more serious, he is condemned to an experience of Life-in-Death.
Since the Mariner has commi ed a sin against God's crea on as well as God, he is alienated from both
of them. This scene of aliena on is depicted in the beginning of Part IV:
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.
The saints do not pity him because he does not deserve their pity. He regrets that so many beau ful
men lie dead on the deck while 'a thousand thousand slimy things' live on. This suggest that he s ll
refuses to acknowledge the worth of his fellow creatures. He tries to pray but fails:
A wicked whisper came, and made
My heart as dry as dust.
The climax is reached when for seven days and seven nights, he has to face the curse in the dead men's
eyes but he does not die. Then comes a turn for the be er. Under the benign influence of the moon,
the Mariner watches the water-snakes moving in tracks of shining white and feels fascinated with their
rich a re. A spring of love gushes from his heart and he blesses them unawares. Immediately he is
able to pray and the Albatross falls into the sea. This marks par al revival.
Part V con nues the process of regenera on. The Mariner is able to sleep, and when he gets up, long
awaited rain brings him comfort and freshness. Now that his heart is no longer dry as dust, this feeling
of freshness is quite inevitable. There is commo on in the sky and a strong wind begins to blow. The
ship begins to move with the roaring sound of the wind though it is not touched by it. If the wind may
be taken as a symbol of the onward flow of life, this itself is a sign of par al recovery. A troop of celes al
spirits stand by the bodies of the dead men and begin to work on the ropes. The body of his brother's
son stands by him, knee to knee. They pull at one rope but not even a the company he has got is s ll
terrifying. Then he hears heavenly music in the but air and is comforted by it. In a way, he has

The Supernatural Events in 'The Ancient Mariner' Too quick for groan or sigh,
First of all, Coleridge transports us to distant mes and remote places with vast weird possibili es. "It Each turned his face with a ghastly pang, And cursed me with his eye. (Lines 212-215)
is an ancient Mariner," he tells us in the very first line of the poem. The word ancient immediately
suggests Middle Ages when an atmosphere of magic and mystery was ripe all around and when Here again the poet does not provide any ugly details and leaves the en re scene to our imagina on.
supernatural occurrences were not dismissed as the figments of a feverish imagina on but were It is for us to imagine how the Mariner must have felt when
believed to be really true. And the Mariner is not moving about in any familiar place but is voyaging
around polar regions in unknown seas where anything might happen. Before any supernatural element “Four mes fi y living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
is introduced, the Mariner does not forget to tell us: They dropped down one by one.” (Lines 216-219)
“We were the first that ever burst; Into that silent sea.’ And not only can we imagine the scene fully but even share the Wedding- Guest's fears that the
Mariner himself is perhaps a ghost. Again, towards the end of the poem, the poet wants to tell us how
Thus cut off from the everybody life, the Ancient Mariner's story gets free from the rigorous logic horrible the Mariner's face appears at the end of his journey. He does not describe the features of his
governing the world of reality and can follow its own laws without unduly straining our credulity. face; instead, he describes the effect produced by the sight of it upon the minds of the Pilot, the Hermit
and the Pilot's boy.
In the beginning, the poet gives a very realis c descrip on of the background:
I moved my lips--the Pilot shrieked And fell down in a fit;
“The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared;Merrily did we drop;Below the kirk, below the
hill,;Below the lighthouse top.” The holy Hermit raised his eyes,
We no ce that the church, the hill, the lighthouse top are men oned exactly in the order in which they And prayed where he did sit.
would disappear from the mariners' sight. It might be a minor detail but it deepens one's faith in the
truth of the narra ve. The next few lines give another similar detail contribu ng to the total effect of I took the oars: the Pilot's boy,
reality. The sun came up upon the le , Who now doth crazy go,
“Out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right Went down into the sea.;Higher and Laughed loud and long, and all the while
higher every day,Till over the mast at noon-“
Such realis c descrip ons of nature sca ered throughout help to sustain this faith. The ice mast high, His eyes went to and fro.
as green as emerald, sending out fi ully a dismal sheen, and occasionally cracking and growling; the (Lines 560-567)
fair breeze blowing, the white foam flowing and the furrow following free; the bloody sun, looking no
bigger than the moon, standing right above the mast in a hot and copper sky; the ship standing s ll as This method of sugges ng supernatural horrors is very different indeed from the prac ce of the
a painted ship upon a painted ocean; the pale moonshine glimmering all night; the horn moon with novelists of the school of terror like Horace Walpole and Monk Lewis. It is also worth no ng that even
one bright star dogging its heels; all these are examples of vivid imagina ve apprehension of the exact when Coleridge has to introduce supernatural beings, he does not introduce ghosts, he animates the
details of nature. Here the very essence of nature is dis lled and with great vividness and imagina ve bodies of the dead crew with a troop of spirits blest and avoids all gruesome details:
energy at once stamped on one's memory. These descrip ons of nature surely help in the acceptance
of the supernatural elements. They groaned, they s rred, they all uprose, Nor spake, nor moved their eyes, It had been strange even
in a dream To have seen those dead men rise. (Lines 331-334)
The supernatural elements are not abruptly introduced into the poem. It is very difficult to locate
exactly where the natural ends and the supernatural begins or to dis nguish the natural from the C.M. Bowra observes that Coleridge has exploited some characteris cs of a dream to make his poem
supernatural in a par cular descrip on. There is a very deliberate, gradual insinua on of the super- look convincing. In his book, The Roman c Imagina on, Bowra writes, "He uses the atmosphere of
natural, the degree of this insinua on having a strict correspondence with the degree of fevered dreams to accustom us to his special world, and then he proceeds to create freely within his chosen
excitement a sensi ve reader is capable of showing at a par cular stage and the degree to which he is limits." Dreams can have a curiously vivid quality which is o en lacking in waking impressions. In
then willing to shed his disbelief. Nature, quite in the beginning, is endowed with supernatural energy. dreams, we have one experience at a me in a very concentrated form and since the cri cal self is not
The storm-blast is represented as a gigan c vulture and we feel that it is not like a lifeless thing but at work, the effect is more powerful and more haun ng than most effects when we are awake. The
bright and red like God's own head. But then nature puts on a sterner aspect. As the mariners burst Ancient Mariner shows many quali es of a dream. It moves in abrupt stages, each of which has its own
into the silent sea, the breeze drops down. The bloody sun stands high above the mast in a hot and single, domina ng character. Its visual impressions are remarkably brilliant and absorbing. Its
copper sky. The very deep rots; slimy things crawl with legs upon the slimy sea; death fires dance, and emo onal impacts change rapidly, but always come with an unusual force as if the poet were haunted
at night water burns green, and blue and white like a witch's oils. The face of nature painted in this and obsessed by them. And when it is all over, it clings to memory with a peculiar tendency, just as on
scene is given a definite touch of the supernatural and it prepares us for the advent of the phantom waking it is difficult to disentangle ordinary experience from influences which s ll survive from sleep."
ship in Part III.
As suggested earlier, in The Ancient Mariner, Coleridge makes use of imagina ve realism. He gives
In The Ancient Mariner, Coleridge has rigidly excluded the conven onal, crude presenta on of the natural touches to supernatural beings and weaves a web of mystery and vagueness about simple
supernatural elements. His depic on is sugges ve and tentalisingly indeterminate, exercising an effect incidents and common objects. Thus the two aspects get thoroughly fused together. The Mariner
of vague mystery. There are no horrifying details in the descrip on of the Nightmare Life-in-Death. himself, with his gli ering eye, grey beard and skinny hand seems to have descended from a world
haunted by phantoms and spectres, whereas supernatural happenings, because of the psychological
Her lips were red, her looks were free, Her locks were yellow as gold; truth inherent in them, look to be quite natural. Moreover the rela on between the supernatural
happenings and the mind of the Mariner is firmly established. One who does not believe in the
Her skin was as white as leprosy, supernatural phenomena can easily accept them as taking place on the inner stage of the Mariner's
The Night-mare Life-in-Death was she, mind. The psychological truth of the incidents will only support such a reading. At the end of the poem,
when the ship approaches the harbour, the sight of the familiar landmarks gree ng our eyes also
Who thicks man's blood with cold (Lines 190-194) assures us of the truth of the whole experience. The horrified shrieks of the Wedding-Guest
occasionally appearing in the narra ve tend to reassert the presence of the world of humanity in a
This is not a full descrip on of Life-in-Death. Perhaps a full descrip on was not possible. Nor was it the supernatural environment.
poet's aim to a empt it. But red lips on a skin as white as leprosy and yellow locks are sugges ve
enough to enable the reader to imagine for himself the gruesomeness of Life-in-Death. Then the poet The exquisite power and pathos with which the poet depicts some of the intensest human emo ons
immediately turns to the Ancient Mariner to tell us the effect of this sight on his mind: is also a factor that helps to reinforce the general impression of truth and reality. The sense of u er
desola on that over-powers the Mariner's soul when the shipmates are suddenly struck dead, the joy
Fear at my heart, as at a cup, My life-blood seemed to sip.(Lines 204-205) of hopeful discovery of the spectre ship lapsing into u er dejec on, the tender apprecia on of the
beauty of the water snakes and the instantaneous onrush of pity, and above all the percep on of love
The poet wants us to grasp the dreadfulness of Life-in-Death through this effect on the Mariner's mind. as the best form of prayer-all these give a predominantly human interest to the poem. In fact it is the
This method has been repeatedly used in the poem to avoid horrible details. At the end of Part III, two human interest and the humanising influence that sustain the supernatural element. Without ge ng
hundred sailors drop down dead one by one, cursing the Mariner with their eyes: sustenance from it, the poem would be reduced to what Bowra calls 'a phantasmagoria of
unconnected events'. But in the presence of the binding influence of a central purpose, the
One a er one, by the star-dogged Moon, supernatural events knit a coherent, intensely meaningful whole.
The Ancient Mariner is, undoubtedly, one of the great roman c poems. THE WEDDING-GUEST
Every line of it exudes the peculiar roman c flavour. The uncanny supernatural atmosphere in the The Wedding-Guest has an important role to play in the drama c frame- work of The Ancient Mariner.
frozen Arc c regions; the spectral characters, Death and Life-in-Death, the Polar Spirit, the ghost-like Structurally, he reinforces the drama c element. Thema cally, he helps the interpenetra on of two
Mariner; the weird natural phenomenon like the emerald-green ice, howling and croaking and sending different kinds of reality, that of the everyday common existence with the world of uncanny and
a dismal sheen, or the bloody sun standing right up above the mast in a hot and copper sky, or water preternatural experience. The introduc on of the Wedding-Guest promotes our understanding of the
burning like a witch's oils; the strange events like the wind roaring at a distance and shaking the sales significance of the Mariner's experience.
with its sound, or the anima on of the dead sailors by a troop of celes al beings, or the sudden sinking
of the ship on the Mariner's arrival back in his country-all these weave a web of mys fying wonder. When the Wedding-Guest is ini ally accosted by the Mariner, he reacts with sharp impa ence:
But The Ancient Mariner cannot just be dismissed as 'a roman c tale of wonder and mystery'. It is Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon! (Line 11)
much more than that. Different readers have tried to interpret the Mariner's experience in different
ways. One of the most percep ve and dis nguished cri cs, E.M.W. Tillyard takes the mariner as a The Mariner drops his hand but holds him with his gli ering eyes:
mental and spiritual adventurer, 'an unusually inquiring spirit'. According to Mr. Tillyard, 'from social He holds him with his gli ering eye-
point of view these spiritual adventurers are criminals: they disturb the exis ng order and they imply
a cri cism of the accepted round of life: they are self-appointed outcasts. The shoo ng of the Albatross The Wedding-Guest stood s ll, And listens like a three years' child;
in the present context was an an social act: something that by everyday rules would not be done'. As
a logical consequence of his revolt against society, he has to go through an agonising experience of The Mariner hath his will.
aliena on. He repents his isola on and escapes it by the enlargement of his sympathies, and he is
allowed to return to common life. Although he has been judged by society,' says Tillyard, 'he has the The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
reward of courage that propels the mental adventurer: that of arres ng and disturbing and teaching
those who have had no such experience.' He cannot choose but hear;
This interpreta on would have been quite acceptable but for the fact that we do not find in the And thus spake on that ancient man,
Mariner's experience any conscious and deliberate viola on of accepted mode of life, so characteris c
of a spiritual adventurer. Wordsworth was the first to point out that 'the Mariner does not act, but is The bright-eyed Mariner. (Lines 13-20)
con nually acted upon'. Humphry House observes that there are three points in the poem at which
the Mariner may be said to act; these are the shoo ng of the Albatross; the blessing of the water- It is clear that if the Wedding-Guest meekly takes his seat on a stone and submits to the Mariner's tale,
snakes; and the bi ng of his arm. The Mariner shoots the Albatross quite suddenly and unexpectedly. it is only under a hypno c effect created on him by the abnormal gleam in the Mariner's eyes. His heart
This ac on is unmo vated and unexplained. It brings into play retributory forces and the Mariner is is in the bridal feast and he would fain escape and join; but he 'cannot choose but hear'. The opening
isolated both physically and spiritually. All ac vity around him is suspended. The ship stands s ll like a of the narra ve is rather ordinary and the Guest finds it difficult to conceal his annoyance. As soon as
painted ship on a painted ocean. The dead bodies of his companions lie on the ro ng deck. Then he hears the merry sounds issuing from the bride's place, he immediately gives vent to his fre ulness:
comes the first phase of his recovery. He watches the water-snakes moving in tracks of shining white. The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
Their rich a re-blue, glossy green and velvet black- fascinates him. He feels that no tongue can
describe their beauty. Then A spring of love gushed from my heart, For he heard the loud bassoon. (Lines 31-32)
And I blessed them unaware: There is a slight change in the a tude of the Wedding-Guest when at the end of Part I, the Mariner
Sure my kind saint took pity on me, comes to the most crucial moment of his tale-the murder of the Albatross. Even the recollec on of
that heinous crime is so painful to the Mariner that he shudders to men on it and defers its
And I blessed them unaware. announcement. The Wedding-Guest perceives the acute pain on his face, his ini al indifference and
hos lity melt away in a moment and he exclaims:
"The word 'unaware' is deliberately repeated," says Humphry House, "and occurs each me
significantly, empha cally, at the end of the line. That is to say, he did not really know what he was God save thee, ancient Mariner !
doing; he could find no adequate spring of ac on in himself, and retrospec vely a ributed his From the fiends, that plague thee thus !-
undeliberate blessing to a supernatural influence on him:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me." Why look'st thou so? (Lines 79-81)
Against these two undeliberate ac ons-shoo ng the Albatross and blessing the water-snakes-should At this moment, the Mariner no longer remains an insolent, eccentric old sea- farer undesirably
be set the one clear occasion when the Mariner does a deliberate ac on. In Part III, when the Mariners imposing himself on a stranger. He becomes one of the millions of unfortunate people suffering untold
are stricken dumb by a drought, he bites his arm, sucks the blood and finds voice to announce the miseries and deserving everyone's unqualified sympathy. A er this, the Wedding-Guest does not
approach of a ship. The sight of the ship promises hope. But when it comes close to them, Death and interrupt the narra ve because of impa ence. He vicariously suffers what the Mariner has suffered
Life-in-Death are discovered in it and all their hopes are appalingly blasted. At the end of this part, the and interrupts only when the pain generated by the Mariner's excrucia ng experience becomes a li le
sailors die, cursing him with their eyes and he alone survives. too unbearable for him. He suffers with the Mariner and learns what the Mariner has learnt at such a
terrible cost. The hypno c spell ini ally cast on him soon ceases to exert, but he is totally absorbed in
Thus we find that of the three ac ons a ributable to the Mariner, two are done unknowingly while the experience. The wedding-bells keep ringing in the background to remind him that he is the 'next
the only deliberate ac on leads ironically to the climax of the disaster. Hence it is difficult to describe of kin' and that 'the feast is set'. But he is u erly oblivious of what goes on around him. It is the Mariner
the Mariner as a great courageous spiritual adventurer though, we must concede, he has a great who tries to awaken him from his spiritual reverie:
spiritual adventure. He is not an unusually inquiring spirit and does not consciously seek adventure; What loud uproar bursts from that door! ;The wedding-guests are there: But in the garden-bower
he is only unwi ngly led into a great spiritual adventure and makes an ethical discovery of great the bride; And bride-maids singing are: And hark the li le vesper bell, Which biddeth me to prayer!
importance. (Lines 591-596)
The Mariner's experience proves so overwhelming for the Wedding-Guest that he becomes just
insensi ve to such calls.
At this point, the Mariner and the Wedding-Guest exhibit a strange reversal of roles. Earlier, the
Mariner has been undergoing an experience of aliena on while the Wedding-Guest was going to
a end a social gathering:
O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide, wide sea:
So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be. (Lines 597-600)

But now the Mariner is able to enjoy company. He died with the death of the Albatross, but the gush
of love he showed for the water-snakes led to his resurrec on into a much larger brotherhood
extending to the whole human race, a brotherhood that includes in it "Coleridge is a dreamer and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a beau ful but frigh ul dream."
Elaborate.
Old men, and babes, and loving friends
Coleridge was a great dreamer indeed. The hours that he spent in facul es were more awake, when,
And youths and maidens gay. (Lines 608-609) to all appearances, he was lost in his dreaming were more important than his waking hours, for his
crea ve dreams. In fact, he fed on his dreams and vitalised them in his poetry. All his important poems
This brotherhood embraces all living creatures and admits of no dis nc ons whatsoever between the have a dreamlike movement.
great and the small, the young and the old, the gay and the serious. The Mariner has a ained a
complete reconcilia on with God and all his crea on. He likes going to the church 'in goodly company' The Rime of the Ancient Mariner also shares many characteris cs of a dream. To begin with, even the
to pray to 'his great Father'. On the other hand, the Wedding-Guest, who was earlier fond of gay inspira on to write it came from a dream. A friend of Coleridge, Mr. Cruikshank, had dreamt about 'a
company, now withdraws into the loneliness of his innerself to ponder over the mystery of human skeleton ship with figures in it'. This dream caught Coleridge's fancy and later when he and
existence and its real significance. He responds neither to the wedding-bells nor to the 'li le vesper Wordsworth planned The Ancient Mariner together, he decided to make it the basis of the poem.
bell'. The profundity of his experience just stuns him. For a while, he is 'forlorn' of his senses. But when
he rises the morrow morn, he is 'a sadder and a wiser man'. Coleridge's subject in The Ancient Mariner was supernatural, and one of the basic problems
confron ng him was to relate it to something which his readers knew and understood, something
The structural importance of the Wedding-Guest is easier to comprehend than his thema c relevance. which could touch their hearts and imagina ons, and this he did by exploi ng some of the
Structurally, he helps to bring out more clearly and empha cally the spiritual crisis undergone by the characteris cs of a dream. C.M. Bowra, in his book The Roman c Imagina on, observes, 'Dreams can
Mariner a er he kills the Albatross. His interrup ons pointedly draw the reader's a en on to the have a curiously vivid quality which is o en lacking in waking impressions. In them we have one
important stages of the Mariner's fateful voyage and the accompanying emo onal states. When the experience at a me in a very concentrated form, and, since the cri cal self is not at work, the effect
Mariner comes to the first important point in his narra ve the point when he shoots the Albatross-the is more powerful and more haun ng than most effects when we are awake. If we remember dreams
Wedding-Guest makes a loud exclama on, which helps to elicit from the Mariner the much- evaded at all, we remember them very clearly; even though by ra onal standards they are quite absurd and
reply: have no direct rela on to our waking life. They have, too, a power of s rring elementary emo ons,
such as fear and desire, in a very direct way, though we do not at the me ask why this happens or
With my cross-bow understand it, but accept it without ques on as a fact. It is enough that the images of dreams are so
penetrated with emo onal significance that they make a simple and absorbing impression."
I shot the Albatross.
If we analyse The Ancient Mariner in the light of the characteris cs of a dream described above, we
(Lines 81-82) Towards the end of Part III, the Mariner describes how his companions drop down dead find unmistakable signs of a dreamlike movement in it. Says Bowra, 'It moves in abrupt stages, each of
one by one with their souls passing by his ear like the whizz of his cross-bow. It is such a ghastly episode which has its own single, domina ng character. Its visual impressions are remarkably brilliant and
that the Wedding-Guest is seized with terror. He suspects the Mariner himself to be a ghost: absorbing. Its emo onal impacts change rapidly, but always come with an unusual force, as if the poet
I fear thee, ancient Mariner ! was haunted and obsessed by them. When it is all over, it clings to the memory with a peculiar tenacity,
just as on waking it is difficult at first to disentangle ordinary experience from influences which s ll
I fear thy skinny hand! survive from sleep.'
And thou art long, and lank, and brown, The Ancient Mariner is a frigh ul dream. The Mariner goes through quite a nightmarish experience
a er he, thought some inexplicable perversity of will, recklessly shoots the Albatross. In Part II, we
As is the ribbed sea-sand. (Lines 224-227) have a picture of the unmoving ship, the bea ng sun and the ro ng water. Slimy things crawl with legs
upon the slimy sea. At night, death-fires dance and water burns like a witch's oils. The dead Albatross
And the Mariner reassures him: is hung round the Mariner's neck. The en re movement of this part is a highly terrifying one. And Part
III furtherintensifies the terror in it. As the skeleton ship approaches the Mariners, the sun is flecked
Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding-Guest! with bars and appears to be peeping from behind a dungeon- grate. The appearance of Life-in-Death
with her red lips, yellow locks and skin as white as leprosy not only sips the Mariner's life-blood but
This body dropt not down. (Lines 230-231) sends freezing chills down our spines too. Then we are just stunned to witness the horrifying spectacles
of two hundred sailors cursing the Ancient Mariner with their eyes and dropping dead one by one. The
Another horrible situa on occurs in Part V when the dead bodies of the sailors are reanimated and opening Part IV depicts an overwhelming picture of u er helplessness and desola on:
they begin to work on the ropes:
Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!
The body of my brother's son
And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.
Stood by me, knee to knee:
Equally overwhelming is the spectacle of the Mariner and the body of his brother's son standing knee
The body and I pulled at one rope, to knee and pulling at one rope but keeping absolutely quite. The sudden, alarmed interrup ons of
But he said nought to me. (Lines 341-344) the Wedding-Guest adequately suggest how frightening some of these occasions can be. When the
Mariner's ship reaches back his own country and the dream is finally over, it brings us a great relief.
The Wedding-Guest again ejaculates: I fear thee, ancient Mariner. And the Mariner promptly replies: But looked at from another angle, The Ancient Mariner is a beau ful dream also. Its en re movement
is directed towards teaching love and reverence to all things made and loved by God. If it is terrifies, it
Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest! guides and educates as well. And it brings a sense of assurance to sinners that through earnest penance
they can atone for their sins and gain regenera on. Hence it is quite jus fied to say that Coleridge is a
'T was not those souls that fled in pain, Which to their corses came again, dreamer and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a beau ful but a frigh ul dream.
But a troop of spirits blest: (Lines 346-349)
A er this the Wedding-Guest is completely fascinated and he does not find any occasion to interrupt
the narra ve.
It has been pointed out that the Wedding-Guest is an ideal reader, 'responsive, apprehensive and
completely involved in what he hears'. He is used to ar culate the reader's own emo onal reac ons
to the narra ve. He has a refined and sharpened sensibility. He keenly feels and expresses, what an
ordinary reader might overlook. The reader who ins nc vely iden fies himself with the Wedding-
Guest takes a cue from him to define his own emo onal responses to the Mariner's tale. The Wedding-
Guest's suspension of disbelief and the trust with which he accepts the tale helps the reader to
suspend his disbelief as well. Besides, he helps to relieve the monotony of what otherwise would have
been a monologue.
Write a note on the medieval atmosphere in The Ancient Mariner.
There is a touch of medievalism in the works of almost all the roman c poets, with the excep on of
Wordsworth. Their roman c temper inclined them towards the distant and the remote in preference
to the homely and familiar. Coleridge who mainly dealt with supernatural subjects was all the more
a racted by the legends and romances of the Medieval mes. Then people were supers ous and
they had a real faith in the supernatural. The Middle Ages, thus, provided Coleridge not only with his
themes but also offered appropriate se ng and atmosphere for the enactment of those themes. All
the important poems of his, The Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan and Love are wrought with
the glamour of the Middle Ages.
The Ancient Mariner does not employ the medieval atmosphere completely as Christabel, where we
have moated-castles, feudal lords, serpent women, and bards and pages. S ll whosoever will read The
Ancient Mariner a li le carefully will not fail to no ce the medieval touches generously given to it. The
very opening line, 'It is an Ancient Mariner' strikes the key-note of the poem. The word 'ancient' not
only refers to the old age of the Mariner but immediately dis nguishes him as belonging to the olden
mes. The reader is thus warned at the outset to be ready to be wa ed to distant mes. The
ceremonials and rituals hinted at in the beginning are connected with the medieval church. The 'loud
bassoon', the 'merry minstrelsy' and 'the blushing bride' suggest a medieval wedding, when measures
were danced and wine flowed in rounds, and songs and ballads were sung with great enthusiasm and
joy.
The Mariner and his companions who set out on an adventurous voyage on the unknown seas
cons tute a part of the earlier history of English naviga on. The ship, the masts, the oars, the sails, the
Pilot and the Pilot's boy, and the lighthouse-all point to the past. The sailors, like people in the Middle
Ages, are a supers ous set. They believe in portents and omens. They take the Albatross to be a bird
of good omen, and condemn the Mariner for having killed it. But when the sun begins to shine brightly,
they think that it was the Albatross who brought fog and mist with it. Even a slight change in the sea-
scape or the sky-scape fills them with ominous fears. The Mariner himself is filled with supers ous
horror when the skeleton ship appears on the horizon and the sun is flecked with bars. The sun peering
as if through a dungeon-grate gives him a sense of spiritual imprisonment. The mark of cross on the
breast or round the neck is taken to be sufficient protec on against evil powers, and when the sailors
hang the Albatross round the neck of the Mariner, they, in a way, declare him unworthy of this
protec on.
The moral theme of the poem consis ng in the catholic idea of redemp on through penance or
expia on is also medieval in spirit. The Hermit who shrives the Mariner and the li le vesper bell that
bids him to prayer are catholic touches, and so are the numerous pious oaths and ejacula ons. The
cross-bow with which the Mariner shoots the Albatross was also used in the Middle Ages.
If we want to interpret The Ancient Mariner correctly, it is essen al to 'keep in mind its medieval
atmosphere. Without the background of medieval piety and supers on, much of the intensity and
poignancy of the Mariner's horror and agony will be lost. Nor will it be possible for us to believe some
of the events and the supernatural machinery employed. However, it must be kept in mind that the
central theme is more universal than medieval. The idea that the best prayer of God consists in the
love of one's fellow creatures is not confined only to the Middle Ages. Different people in different
ages have discovered it in their own way. Medievalism does not form the substance of The Ancient
Mariner; it gives it the much needed sense of remoteness and offers a fit se ng for the marvellous
Coleridge wanted to display in his poetry.