Symbols in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

A detailed Summary of Symbols in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

In this essay, I will be examining some of the symbols in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Symbols were very important in this poem. Without the symbols, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" would be simply a poem about an old mariner who is telling a story about killing a bird to a guest at a wedding. Of course, anyone who reads the poem can see that there is more to it than just a simple telling of a story.

The first symbol in the poem is the wedding that the guest and the Mariner are at. This is a highly significant detail, because Coleridge could have made the story telling take place at any setting, but he chose a wedding. Why? A wedding is a very religious, very happy occasion. Weddings in and of themselves symbolize new beginnings and happiness. The reason that Coleridge decided to have this horrid tale told at a wedding could be for any number of reasons. I feel that the setting was chosen because of the new beginnings implied. As the Mariner tells his tale, the guest is held captive and when the story is done, the guest becomes essentially a new man and goes off to live the rest of his life. Had the tale taken place at a funeral, the heavy feeling of ending would have destroy

In Part 3, after the albatross was hung around the neck of the Mariner, the good fortune has left the ship, and all of the sailors are starving and dehydrated. The Mariner, starving and dehydrated also, notices a shape in the distance, and realizes that it is a ship. Now, the Mariner and the sailors are so dehydrated that they cannot speak, so the Mariner bites his arm and sucks the blood in order to call out to his fellows.

The sections pertaining to Death and Life-In-Death are very symbolic. The ship that they arrive in is nothing but a "naked hulk," (ln.195) with the skeleton of the ship showing through. This is symbolic of death itself. As death decomposes, so the ship that it arrives in is decomposed. The two, Death and Life-In-Death play a game for the lives of the people on the ship, which is symbolic of the gamble that the Mariner took when he shot the albatross. The Mariner took a gamble with his religion, and now the pair is taking a gamble for his life. Life-In-Death ultimately wins over Death in the game, and the Mariner's shipmates die at his feet, yet he lives on.

The penance that the mariner serves is symbolic in itself. He must go to see a Hermit, for this Hermit is the only person who can grant the penance for the Mariner. The Hermit takes the Mariner onto a skiff, which they take across a lake to a ship. This ship is the ship that the Mariner came in on, though he does not know it. As they near the ship, it takes in water, and eventually, the bay is split by something underneath the water, and the ship sinks. This is the beginning of the Mariner's penance in that the ship was the place that the evil of killing the albatross came to be. When this disappears, so does some of the guilt that is on the Mariner. But his penance is to last for the rest of the Mariner's life. As the Hermit talks to him, the Mariner feels a burning compulsion to tell his tale to some person that needs the lesson in his life. To this man, the Mariner has a valuable lesson to be learned from his mistakes.

ed the symbolism of new beginnings. Ending of life, of happiness, of everything. If this had happened, then the fact that he rose the next day would not have been as significant. Therefore, the weddi

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Approximate Word count = 1508
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English