The Rime of The Ancient Mariner

Thesis statement

An epic poem, The Rime of The Ancient Mariner is full of symbolism and Christian themes. There are multiple instances where ordinary objects are used to represent something of a greater meaning, starting with the shooting of the Albatross, and its symbolist relationship to original sin.

Introduction

The term 'symbolism' can be defined as the practice, system and art of representing ideas by means of symbols. The term 'symbol' although is a word, a phrase, an object, or a clause even, yet it always represents an abstraction. So the thing represented is an idea, quality, condition, or any other abstract thing.

Discussion and Analysis

First published in 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's masterpiece, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with its complex narrative and supernatural overtones, the account of sin and restoration, may at first seem an unlikely piece of literature to rework into a cautionary tale about how we treat our planet today, but Nick Hayes, an author and illustrator, has done just that. The Rime of the Modern Mariner is a beautifully illustrated epic poem that updates the familiar tale of Coleridge's poem, which sees a weary mariner forced to roam the earth telling all who will listen about the dastardly events that occur after he foolishly kills an albatross while out at sea. Hayes modernises Coleridge's wedding guest, whom the mariner confronts to tell his tale, into a divorced office-worker having lunch in a park (who, sure enough, thoughtlessly discards his plastic sandwich box on the floor during the tale).

Symbolism

Coleridge has employed symbolism in The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, as E.E. Stolls sums up, in two artistic symbolic Categories symbols of distance and symbols of life in middle ages. E.E.Stoll, opines that the symbols are based on the 'principle of perspective'. The symbols of the art of storytelling serve to heighten the illusion; credibly the marvels, provide an approach to them, a middle distance, which makes them appropriately more remote. There is also nearer distance. The Wedding Guest is a symbol of the middle distance. He stands between the Ancient Mariner and his voyage in a land of marvels. The marginal comment of the poet is a symbol of nearer distance. It stands between the reader and the marvel land of poetry.

Further, the Hermit, the pilot and the Pilot's boy, again the background of the sea-port hill, the church, and the lighthouse are symbols of the vanished life of the middle ages. Hence in the words of Stoll, “when the Mariner and his strip, equally bewitched arrive, the effect of the mere sight of them on normal every day Hermit, pilot and pilot boy is startling, shocking. The effect of that, in turn, upon the Wedding Guest and also the reader is convincing” (Dean, 3).

The Mariner

A symbol of inquiring spirit: Adopting the spiritual point of view, E. M. W. Tillyard looks upon the Ancient Mariner a symbol of “an unusually inquiring spirit”, and his voyage as a 'mental adventure'. Allan grant says that ...