The Supernatural and the Bible: Two Forces That Guide the Mariner and His Crew
Taking something old and turning it into something new is an act most everyone has done at some point in time. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a perfect description of the re-salvage of Greek and Roman stories that the author uses in his writings. In this short story, author Coleridge, beautifully portrays an English ballad in the Romantic Period and offers a delightful, yet eerie, twist on older stories to help form this ballad. His use of the supernatural, pride, death, and life-in-death helps us shape our view of spirituality in this story combined with biblical elements and lessons in this poem. As seen in the beginning of the story, …show more content…
Once his crew has been taken by death, he is sentenced to life on his boat alone, surrounded by the bodies of his former crew. By only being surrounded by his lifeless crew, this is a harsh punishment because the Mariner knows only he is to blame for their deaths. His only companions are the sea snakes that surrounded the ship in the water. “ For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents” (Exodus 7:12). This quote fully captures the similarities between the bible and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, as if God has turned the Mariner’s crew into snakes in the water. As he realizes that these sea snakes are the only living things near him, he has a sudden burst of love for these snakes. He has formed a new appreciation for living things, which are God’s own creations. “A spring of love gushed from my heart, and I blessed them unaware: Sure my kind saint took pity on me, and I blessed them unaware” (Coleridge). The Mariner has suffered so long from the isolation that he has come to love the only alive being near him, thus reflecting on what the bible says about loving your neighbor. To the Mariner’s surprise the albatross falls off from around his neck and he falls into a deep sleep that only the rain can awake him from, “Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness” (Isaiah 45:8). God has blessed the Mariner with rain because he has learned to let love into his heart. He quickly …show more content…
The theme of supernatural came across many times in the role of the “good spirit” or Jesus, the ghost ship and even the angels at the end. Biblically, Jesus came down to Earth to save his people from despair. This links to what Coleridge was writing about when the albatross came down to guide the crew out of the fog storm, the isolation for penance and resurrecting his crew as angels in the end. Suffering was another major theme in this story, the “good spirit” wanted to teach the Mariner a lesson about killing the albatross, so a plague wiped the ship of its crew members, leaving only the Mariner alive. His penance was to live alone on the ship until he could find a peace and a desire in his heart to come to terms with his sins. Finally, after all his suffering the Mariner blessed the snakes and angels came to his rescue tying the Bible into the story one last
Taking something old and turning it into something new is an act most everyone has done at some point in time. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a perfect description of the re-salvage of Greek and Roman stories that the author uses in his writings. In this short story, author Coleridge, beautifully portrays an English ballad in the Romantic Period and offers a delightful, yet eerie, twist on older stories to help form this ballad. His use of the supernatural, pride, death, and life-in-death helps us shape our view of spirituality in this story combined with biblical elements and lessons in this poem. As seen in the beginning of the story, …show more content…
Once his crew has been taken by death, he is sentenced to life on his boat alone, surrounded by the bodies of his former crew. By only being surrounded by his lifeless crew, this is a harsh punishment because the Mariner knows only he is to blame for their deaths. His only companions are the sea snakes that surrounded the ship in the water. “ For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents” (Exodus 7:12). This quote fully captures the similarities between the bible and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, as if God has turned the Mariner’s crew into snakes in the water. As he realizes that these sea snakes are the only living things near him, he has a sudden burst of love for these snakes. He has formed a new appreciation for living things, which are God’s own creations. “A spring of love gushed from my heart, and I blessed them unaware: Sure my kind saint took pity on me, and I blessed them unaware” (Coleridge). The Mariner has suffered so long from the isolation that he has come to love the only alive being near him, thus reflecting on what the bible says about loving your neighbor. To the Mariner’s surprise the albatross falls off from around his neck and he falls into a deep sleep that only the rain can awake him from, “Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness” (Isaiah 45:8). God has blessed the Mariner with rain because he has learned to let love into his heart. He quickly …show more content…
The theme of supernatural came across many times in the role of the “good spirit” or Jesus, the ghost ship and even the angels at the end. Biblically, Jesus came down to Earth to save his people from despair. This links to what Coleridge was writing about when the albatross came down to guide the crew out of the fog storm, the isolation for penance and resurrecting his crew as angels in the end. Suffering was another major theme in this story, the “good spirit” wanted to teach the Mariner a lesson about killing the albatross, so a plague wiped the ship of its crew members, leaving only the Mariner alive. His penance was to live alone on the ship until he could find a peace and a desire in his heart to come to terms with his sins. Finally, after all his suffering the Mariner blessed the snakes and angels came to his rescue tying the Bible into the story one last