Samuel Taylor Coleridge, author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was born on October 21, 1772 in Ottery St. Mary in Devonshire. Coleridge lived a life of many physical and spiritual crises. Despite these serious crises, Coleridge did not burn out like many other Romantics.
He came through to become one of history’s greatest Romantic poets. Coleridge, with the help of his friend and literary collaborator, William Wordsworth, wrote Lyrical Ballads. Lyrical Ballads is a co-operative volume of poetry, containing the opening poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is said to have been written on account of his friend’s dream but there are different interpretations of the poem and of the meanings behind Coleridge’s use of symbolism. In this poem, Coleridge uses the story of a sailor and his adventures to reveal aspects of life.
This tale follows the Mariner and his crew as they travel between the equator and the south pole, and then back to England. Coleridge’s use of symbolism lends the work to adults as a complex web of representation, rather than a meaningless story about a sailor and his crew. There are two main interpretations of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The first interpretation is biological and the second interpretation is religious or sacramental. The first interpretation states that the Mariner is Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Albatross is one of Coleridge’s loved ones, and the Mariner’s sufferings are an expression of Coleridge’s strong addiction to opium, and moral collapse. This is eventually cured by his return to the “harbour” (Holmes 86-87).
The Essay on “Willing Suspension in Disbelief” in Coleridge’s “the Rime of Ancient Mariner”
Willing suspension in disbelief” in Coleridge’s “The Rime of Ancient Mariner”. “Willing suspension in disbelief” is the method of bringing non-realistic, supernatural elements in justification in literature. It is a way through which a writer infuses a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative. ...
The second interpretation is religious or sacramental. The voyage taken by the Mariner is a mental journey from conventional daytime thoughts to the land of imagination (Gose 8).
In this interpretation the killing of the Albatross represents a sin against God or nature (Holmes 87).
Because the Mariner’s crew thought of the Albatross as a Christian soul and hailed it in God’s name, the Mariner was then accused of being wrong of killing it (Gose 8).
The crew condones the killing of the Albatross and therefore suffers death while the Mariner undergoes the harsher punishment of “life in death” (Gose 9).
The Mariner’s sufferings are a form of purgatorial fire and his return to the harbour represents salvation.
The Hermit that absolves the Mariner from his sins is also a representation of salvation (Holmes 87).
These situations are what refer to the theme of sacramental vision or the theme of One life (Warren 9).
Each of these interpretations reflect the recognition of a tripartite movement in the poem. What this means is that each interpretation represents the journey out, the trial and revelation, and the journey back (Holmes 87).
In both of these interpretations this is shown by the Mariner’s journey out to sea, the trials and tribulations he experiences when he is out on the sea, and then his return home after he reaches salvation. There have been several attempts to explain the symbolism in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
So many objects and occurrences symbolize different ideas and beliefs throughout the poem. All of the symbolisms used throughout this poem are generally represented as having religious or sacramental meaning. The different uses of symbolisms range from the actual characters themselves and their religious meaning, to the colors of the sky that Coleridge describes in order to add to the overall religious outlook on this poem.
