As a genre of literature with a setting on or near the sea, nautical fiction focuses on the human relationship to the sea and sea voyages and highlights nautical culture in these environments. “Master and commander”, a 2003 American historical drama film written, produced and directed by Peter Weir. Because both the written and film version of Master and Commander were created long after the characteristics of nautical themes and perceptions solidified into literature, the film draws to many associations to earlier works on sea narratives, such as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the longest major poem written by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. While there are markedly correlations in the film to the poem, other elements
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The use of extreme long shot in this scene established the ship’s loneliness and isolation in the sea, which in turn offered a vivid image of the vastness of the sea. Furthermore, the ship was surrounded by a thick layer of mist. This image illustrated by Weir has a mysterious portrayal and is building a suspenseful mood on the ship’s voyage, while limiting the knowledge of the unknown behind the mist. The diegetic sounds of the eerie wind, coupled with the non-diegetic synthetic sounds, contributed to the overall atmosphere with further emphasis on the danger and uncertainty of the sea. The imageries used in both texts highlights the cruelty of the sea, imageries that was depicted exemplified that the danger and uncertainty of the …show more content…
While it can be frightening and beautiful, the natural power of the sea in Rime is unquestionable. Coleridge praised the unencumbered, imaginative soul of youth, finding images to describe the nature through the use of romantic imagery, while emphasized the way in which the natural world dwarfs and asserts its absolute power over man. It is significant that when the albatross first appears, the sailors greet it "as if it had been a Christian soul (and) hailed it in God 's name.” Because it is part of nature, the albatross is treated with reverence and respect. But when the mariner kills the albatross, he has broken the natural connection between man the the nature which links all the living things in an ideal brotherhood, and placed himself in extreme calamity. Though in many ways it is the actual killing of the albatross that comes to have great meaning in the poem, but the albatross itself has always been linked to a number of things in nautical society. It is more than an ordinary crime, since it violates the sacred natural order. The biblical reference of the Christian soul and the god further stabalize the romantic nature of the poem, to support the claim that the imaginative and intellectual power in the poem is derived from the natural world, Coleridge linked them to god, spirituality in a romantic manner.
In the film “master and commander”, perhaps its not a stretch to claim
The use of extreme long shot in this scene established the ship’s loneliness and isolation in the sea, which in turn offered a vivid image of the vastness of the sea. Furthermore, the ship was surrounded by a thick layer of mist. This image illustrated by Weir has a mysterious portrayal and is building a suspenseful mood on the ship’s voyage, while limiting the knowledge of the unknown behind the mist. The diegetic sounds of the eerie wind, coupled with the non-diegetic synthetic sounds, contributed to the overall atmosphere with further emphasis on the danger and uncertainty of the sea. The imageries used in both texts highlights the cruelty of the sea, imageries that was depicted exemplified that the danger and uncertainty of the …show more content…
While it can be frightening and beautiful, the natural power of the sea in Rime is unquestionable. Coleridge praised the unencumbered, imaginative soul of youth, finding images to describe the nature through the use of romantic imagery, while emphasized the way in which the natural world dwarfs and asserts its absolute power over man. It is significant that when the albatross first appears, the sailors greet it "as if it had been a Christian soul (and) hailed it in God 's name.” Because it is part of nature, the albatross is treated with reverence and respect. But when the mariner kills the albatross, he has broken the natural connection between man the the nature which links all the living things in an ideal brotherhood, and placed himself in extreme calamity. Though in many ways it is the actual killing of the albatross that comes to have great meaning in the poem, but the albatross itself has always been linked to a number of things in nautical society. It is more than an ordinary crime, since it violates the sacred natural order. The biblical reference of the Christian soul and the god further stabalize the romantic nature of the poem, to support the claim that the imaginative and intellectual power in the poem is derived from the natural world, Coleridge linked them to god, spirituality in a romantic manner.
In the film “master and commander”, perhaps its not a stretch to claim