The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
To what extent do you agree with the view that the Mariner deserves his punishment for the crimes he commits?
Many commentators would argue that the Ancient Mariner’s punishment for the killing of the albatross is too severe and out of all proportion to the crime. He is condemned to expiate this crime for the rest of his life, which many might regard as a life-in-death sentence. Moreover, his crew receive an actual death sentence. The inhospitable destruction of the innocent bird of good omen, who brought joy and hope to the isolated, stranded sailors, is undoubtedly a heinous and “hellish” act and it seems just that he should suffer for this for a time, which does happen. However, from the very end of Part IV, when he blesses the water snakes, appreciating their beauty, there are signs of hope and of redemption. When he is gratefully returned to his own country, he is compelled to tell his story indefinitely or else suffer “a woful agony”. This could be regarded as a perpetual punishment. Furthermore, there is no indication that he will ever truly be forgiven or absolved in his duty to share his experience in this way. However, this burdensome mission can also be viewed as a blessing, since, by telling his story, he is given the gift or “strange power” of being able to save others, including the wedding guest, as is implied in the last two lines at end of the poem. Therefore, although he does deserve the actual torture that he suffers during the frightful voyage, it is questionable whether the psychological suffering that he later endures is as torturous, as he is renewed in faith and has the spiritual reward of being returned to his church community, where he can socialise and partake in communal prayer.
We are made aware of this fervent missionary zeal from his first compulsive apprehending of the wedding guest at the beginning of the poem. The Mariner is “bright-eyed”, suggesting that he has an energy and purpose in life and is not defeated. The gaiety and merriment of the wedding feast does not deflect the Mariner’s intention for a second. He has returned from a journey where he has been transported beyond the everyday celebrations of normal civilization. The extraordinary experiences that he has had, take place a very different, supernatural sphere of existence that astound the imagination. Like the storm-blast which struck the Mariner’s ship at the beginning, with “o’ertaking wings”, Nature can be “tyrannous and strong”, suggesting that the arrogance and vaulting ambition of mankind will founder and be checked by the awe-inspiring omnipotence and the terrifying elements of the natural world. It is not long before the sailors are punished for their hubris, in the unforgiving glacial grip of ice, which is “mast-high”. Shortly afterwards, when they reach the Pacific, they learn how lethal it can be to be becalmed. For attempting to master nature in this way, the mariners are justly punished. However, Coleridge’s poem is not confined to the primary realm of the physical world of nature. Although he maintains a reverence and awe towards the natural world, he is drawn also to an exploration of the spiritual world; in particular to an investigation of sin, suffering and salvation.
If acquiring a deep emotional attachment to natural life forms like the albatross reflected Coleridge’s essential spiritual nature, he also recognized that the world can be barbarous and cruel. The tension between these opposing ideas or this duality is what makes the poem so effective. Essentially, the tension is between his pantheistic vision of the world suffused with God’s abundant goodness on the one hand, and arbitrary violence and acts of evil on the other. When the albatross first appears “through the fog”, it is not inconceivable, especially in those superstitious times, to picture the sailors imagining the huge bird with its twelve-foot wing-span resembling a cross and, therefore, a sign from God. This is implied in their hailing it in God’s name, “As if it had been a Christian soul”. It could be said that the killing of the bird represents the sin of crucifixion, with the bird becoming a martyr. The fact that no motive is given for the crime is significant, implying that within mankind there are areas of darkness, mystery and irrationality.
Following this wicked, irrational act, we are taken on a journey towards the dark mysteries of the supernatural, where “death-fires danced at night” and the water burned in striking colours, “like a witch’s oils”. There is an invisible spirit accompanying them, “Nine fathom deep”, who is not a guardian angel, but possibly some form of avenging spirit (originating from an idea of Wordsworth’s). We then encounter the most significant and symbolic representative elements of the supernatural - the nightmarish figures on board the spectral ship, Death and Life-in-death. These elements intensify the suffering of all the mariners. It is as if we have arrived at the gates of a grotesque hell, where fate is decided on the throw of dice. It seems, at this point in the poem, that the fickle crew – who are complicit in the crime – are given the less punitive release of death. In contrast, the Mariner must live on to face a living hell, even though this is later transformed into a sort of humane purgatory. The way each “lifeless lump” expires is dramatically highlighted by the onomatopoeic word “thump” and, as they depart, the “whizz” of the souls leaving their bodies parodies the sound of the Mariner’s shot of his cross-bow, emphasizing his guilt. However, after an inconsolable period of hellish isolation, “a spring of love gushed from [his] heart” when he sees the “happy living things”, that he had previously despised, transformed in the frosty light and he is able to “[bless] them unaware”. It is this act of spontaneous charity and unselfishness as the spell begins to break which leads to his spiritual rebirth. This dramatic reversal is the beginning of his redemption and is initiated by his appreciation of the beauty of the moon and the stars as they move across their “home” in the sky, which provides him with a sense of peace.
The beauty of the moon, illuminating the vibrant life on the sea, a compelling symbol here and in other parts of the poem, is balanced by frequent references to the sun. There are examples of other symbols which are presented as paired elements – a dualism which has already been referred to - echoing the themes of sin and forgiveness and punishment and redemption. At the beginning of the poem, the sun, which “shone bright”, symbolizes the dependable, rational world. Later, however, it becomes a vision of prison, peering “As if through a dungeon-grate” [179] through the spectral ship. There is a sense that it has become malevolent to highlight the crime which has been committed. The moon symbolizes the divine spirit which remains indifferent to the Mariner’s ordeal’ keeping to her own course throughout the voyage. The two voices, whose conversation the Mariner hears subconsciously, symbolize the spiritual and psychological part of the Mariner’s mind. At this point he appears to be opening his heart towards a spiritual change. Conscious of his crime and the need for repentance, he tunes in to the second spirit who has a voice, “as soft as honeydew”, and who tells him: “The man hath penance done/ and penance more will do”.
The first penance he must submit to is the staring eyes of the dead souls around him on the ship, and the horror of this disturbs him to the extent of preventing him from praying. However, on his onward journey, he recalls the spring, as the benevolent wind fans his cheek, “Like a meadow-gale of spring”. Like the nine circles of Dante’s hell, the seven sections of the poem facilitate the progress of the Mariner towards his final penance, and towards his personal mission. When he returns to his familiar country, it is silent and moon-lit, and he witnesses the strange shadowy shapes, “in crimson colours” departing from the dead crew. This strange spiritual and supernatural occurrence is reassuring, as it suggests they are leaving their past sinful existence behind and moving on towards celestial salvation. This is a moment of great release for the Mariner, for, despite the strange silence, he hears it paradoxically, “Like music on [his] heart” [500]. This silence soon gives way to the noise of the pilot’s rescue boat, which also brings the
Hermit. They are full of wonder, as they examine the warped planks and thin sails of the ship. Appropriately the boat reminds the hermit of the skeletons of the dead leaves in the wood where he lives, which reminds us of the crew on board, “For a charnel-house fitter”.
Before he is ultimately rescued, it is appropriate that the ship, a vessel of so much suffering and pain, should capsize and sink “down like lead”, reminiscent of the dropping down of the albatross. In the rescue boat, the pilot’s boy recoils in horror from the sight he has seen and imagines that the Mariner resembles the Devil, signaling that his spiritual journey is by no means complete. When he appeals to the hermit to “shrive” him, conscious that his inner torment still persists, the holy man forces him to tell his story. From this confession he gains some consolation, but he soon realizes that he can never live a normal existence. From time to time his disgust at his past crime builds up to such an extent that he is forced to select a suitable listener to recount his story. Towards the end of the final section, he imparts the lesson of what he has experienced to the wedding guest. By being deprived of love and joy, the Mariner has come to appreciate how spiritually necessary the qualities of companionship are. He has told his story not only to relive the suffering he still experiences, but to teach others the importance of what he has learned. Only through love and reverence for all living things “both great and small”, which God has made, can man truly be restored to peace and harmony with his existence.
This moral bequest to the wedding guest is equivalent to an ecological plea to safeguard the environment and all living creatures. However, there is a wider spiritual and supernatural significance which extends beyond our world. The wedding guest is both “sadder” and “wiser” at the very end. This implies that he has been profoundly shaken by the Mariner’s strange gift of language. The “power of speech” has given meaning to his otherwise pitiful and isolated existence. It is this gift which has transformed his punishment into something resembling a humane purgatory. Coleridge has achieved this not only by the power of his language and imagination, but by the ballad form itself. He was very much aware that if the imagination is completely untethered, there can be dangers. Consequently, he secures himself against this risk by constraining his imaginative fervour within strict conventions. Like in the old ballads, his story is simply told, with an emphasis on certain striking situations, plainly stated, and not described in detail. He breaks down the barrier between the natural and the supernatural, and it is impossible to say where the one ends and the other begins. The story is told by suggestion as much as by actual narrative. Although the poem is visionary, its imagery is not hazy, but particularly vivid. For example, the “rich attire" of the slimy creatures in the sea is described as “Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,/They coiled, and swam; and every track/Was a flash of golden fire.” Here the simple rhymes, monosyllables, arresting caesura and the satisfying enjambment, which flashes us forward, combine to create a vision which is both beautiful and supernatural. By these masterful techniques and by the artistic achievement of neutralizing the Mariner’s punishment and guilt, we as readers have come to share and learn from intense emotional suffering that is completely outside our own experience.
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