Theme Of Class Inequality In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

concerns towards class inequality; he’d been dealing with the hardships this inequality brought since he was a young child (Daiches 251) and it is made obvious in “To a Louse” that this fact still haunts him. Burns took the issues that plagued both himself and much of Scotland, such as politics, religious viewpoints, and class inequality, as well as traditional Scottish elements, as seen in his use of the Scots dialect, to shape his work to himself and to others. He took the things that angered him and made him suffer the most and used his poetry, often in the satire form, as an outlet for everything he needed to release. It is for this reason that Burns’ poetry is what kept him steady throughout his life and career. Samuel Taylor Coleridge …show more content…
After numerous unsuccessful attempts to get his life together, Coleridge decided to just settle into an unsatisfying life (Bloom 2). He got married for the second time and “his health rapidly deteriorated” (Bloom 2). He fell into rampant drug abuse as a result of this deteriorating health, and “to help endure the pain he began to drink laudanum, liquid opium” (Bloom 2). Coleridge’s work began reflecting his downfall, as his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a direct representation of his struggles with addiction and also sheds some light on what helps him through life. In this poem, the Ancient Mariner kills one of God’s creatures (82) and was promptly punished for it by Life-in-Death after she won the right to choose his punishment (195-8). Life-in-Death began taking the life out of the crew members (216-23) as his punishment, leaving the Ancient Mariner “alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea” (232-3). This draws a parallel to Coleridge’s personal suffering, as drug addiction is what caused him such great …show more content…
The Ancient Mariner’s curse began to lift only when he could once again understand and appreciate the beauty of life and God’s creatures (282-91). This draws another major comparison to Coleridge’s life, as he was forced to rely his life, work, and happiness upon those who knew and supported him as a person, particularly William Wordsworth (Greenblatt 437-8) and James Gillman (Bloom 3). Coleridge and Wordsworth became quite close, they had a “period of intimate communication and poetic collaboration” (Greenblatt 437-8) that caused “the golden time of Coleridge’s life” (Greenblatt 438). The two created the famous Lyrical Ballads in 1798 which