Human Nature And Nature In Coleridge's The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

In his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge provides us with a disturbing and persuasive poem that explores moral questions about human nature and their relationship with nature. The ancient mariner, tells the young wedding-guest about his trials and tribulations of his adventures of the sea. The wedding-guest cannot help but to interject several times during the mariner’s story to exclaim his shock and distrust of his tale. By the conclusion of the ancient mariner’s tale, the wedding-gust proclaims he is a “sadder but wiser” man, Coleridge clearly shows the reader the two significant lessons within his poem. First and for most, humans can control how we respond to nature, however humanity could never control nature itself and should …show more content…
Which is also the same lesson the mariner wished to convey to the wedding-guest. Coleridge uses the mariner as the narrator to show the before and after effects of his misdeed. The Mariner tells of the beginning of his journey as calm and sunny. However, the voyage quickly darkens, as a giant storm rose up from the sea and blasted the ship further southward. It is here, where Coleridge begins to stress the great power that nature has, and shows the reader how humanity has no control of natural disasters. It isn’t until later that Coleridge illustrates how humanity can coincide with nature. The weather becomes worse and there is no wind to guide their path. Until the crew spots an Albatross, the crew interpreted this to be a symbol of good luck. The wind began to move the ship as the Albatross began to navigate their ship across the sea. For reasons, unknown, the mariner shoots and kills the albatross, which consequently marks the beginning unbeknownst them, disasters that will befall their ship. Coleridge marks this action as the beginning to the end, showing the reader the “original offense” causing their …show more content…
With the Albatross dead and on the mariner’s neck, the wind no longer blew and which left them stranded with little food and no water; leaving them dehydrated. With this in mind, mariner bites into his arm drawing blood to warn his fellow shipmates of a ship, unbeknownst to the mariner impending doom was heading his direction. The ship contained of death and life-in-death gambling for their souls, unfortunately the crew lost their lives and cursed the mariner before their corpses dropped on the ship. Afterword, mariner laid on the ship being tortured by the eyes of his fellow crewman and the decaying albatross corpse. Coleridge shows one consequence after another, each consequence worse than the last, his consequences are greater because the albatross was symbolized as a holy