Paper Topic:
William T. Coleridge`s `Rime of the Ancient Mariner`
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an allegorical poem about an old mariner who travels around telling the story of what happened to him and a shipload of men when he killed an albatross . He tells his story to a man who is on his way to a wedding with two other friends . While the friends try to shoo the old mariner away , the man is unable to ignore the old mariner , especially when his glittering eye ' captures his attention . He initially thinks the mariner 's glittering eye is a sign of
madness , but in actuality , the eye and all other references to light within the poem symbolize the spirit world . In other words , there is an air of otherworldliness within the old mariner that both scares and intrigues the wedding guest listening to his story
As the wedding guest listens with intensity , the old mariner tells of being on a ship with several other men . The ship sails to Antarctica and they are surrounded by ice and fog . Out of the fog appears an albatross , which the men on the ship consider a good omen . However , a few days later , the old mariner kills the albatross , and as a result all the good luck the men had disappears . The ship no longer sails and the men become weak due to lack of food and drink . They realize that it is the death of the albatross that has caused all the bad things to happen , so the men hang the dead albatross around the mariner 's neck
Eventually , another ship is spotted , and late that day , they realize it is a ghost ship . On the ship there are only two crewmembers , both of which are ghosts . The first one is a woman and she is called Life-in-Death ' The other one is a man and is called Death ' The two ghosts roll dice to see who will get which one of the crewmen on the mariner 's ship . In the end , Death gets all the sailors on the ship while Life-in-Death gets the ancient mariner . Thus , the crewmen all die one by one , leaving just the mariner
Now alone , the mariner has time to appreciate the beauty of nature around him . That beauty strikes a chord within him , and he finds himself blessing it . He also begins to regret killing the albatross , and begins praying to seek forgiveness . This is the turning point of the story Because of his regret , the albatross falls from his neck and the mariner falls asleep . In his dream he thanks Mary , the mother of Jesus , for the beauty of nature
After a storm , the ship ends up in a harbor where there is a lighthouse and a church . A ship appears with a hermit , a pilot , and his assistant The pilot 's assistant says that the mariner 's ship looks evil , and suddenly the ship sinks . The mariner is floating in the water and the assistant is the one who saves him from drowning...
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