The Ancient Mariner

‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ an odd piece written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with the help of Wordsworth, is told in the form of a frame story. An old mariner walks up to wedding guests as they are walking to the celebration to tell them his tragic story. He had been on a ship with many other crew members that got lost in a storm at sea. An albatross flew onto the ship and was helping guide the crew back to safety. As the bird was not literally directing them, it served as a good luck charm for the ship’s crewmates. But, the ancient mariner decided to shoot the albatross with no explicit reason. The other crew members are so upset with him that they hang the dead bird around his neck for him to never take off. The mariner’s story …show more content…
Many descriptions and events in the story had a hallucinogenic tone. This includes numerous descriptions with an eccentric use of color and light, and other outlandish events like the resurrection of the crewmembers into ghostlike creatures. The author even compares the color of the water surrounding the boat after he kills the albatross to the oil used by witches to cast spells. Also death and life-in-death are in the form of an eerie ghost ship. This is the same ship that kills all of the crew members except the mariner in a battle. But even after this bizarre event, there is another one that follows. All of the crew is resurrected and angels possess their rotting corpses. And finally when the curse is finally lifted, the mariner is described as feeling as light as a ghost, to some insinuating that he was …show more content…
Coleridge was going through a painful time in his life, both emotionally and physically. He was struck with stiffness in his joints at a fairly young age and as a result, he started taking addictive drugs. These drugs helped sooth his physical pain but his emotional pain was left unrepaired. He realized soon after he began taking the drugs that it was a mistake but he felt trapped and couldn’t break his bad habit. Just like Coleridge, the mariner was also caught up in a big mistake that he could never get out of. The mariner had shot the albatross and had to suffer the rest of his life for his action. The mariner’s resemblance of the author extends even beyond this. Through the blessing the mariner bestows on the sea creatures, he is freed of the albatross hanging around his neck, but it still lives within him. As penance, he has to continue to relive the story by telling it to everyone he meets. These events in the story could symbolize the struggle of Coleridge to overcome his addiction and the determination he has to part with his bad habits. The he is trying to free the albatross from his neck by attempting to stop using opium, but he also knows that the emotional effects the drugs had on him will be