Understanding and accepting the impact of decisions
Understanding and accepting the impact of decisions
Atticus Seale
What people don't understand, they tend to fear, and what they fear, they destroy. The epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, tells the astonishing and unbelievable story of a mariner’s trip to the South Pole and back. The story consists of mystic powers and throughout the poem, the ancient mariner comes across many different situations and intersections. Over the course of the poem, the mariner comes to accept the consequences of his actions by gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of the world around him.
At the beginning of the poem, when the mariner begins his voyage, he has no grasp of the repercussions for poor decision making. After the mariner and his shipmates are pushed off course by the wind, they find themselves in the land of ice, and they run into an albatross. As they continue sailing, the albatross follows, but later, the mariner kills the albatross. Although the rest of the crew debates his actions; some believe that the reason that he decided to kill the albatross is because he associated the lack of wind with the bird. Since the wind begins to drive the ship as soon as the albatross appears. When he kills it, Colebridge writes, “'God save thee, ancient mariner!/ From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—/ Why look'st thou so?'—With my crossbow/ I shot the ALBATROSS./…”(pg.7). This quote shows how naive the mariner was in the beginning stages of his voyage. The mariner didn’t recognize or even think to second guess himself before impulsively killing the albatross. After killing the Albatross, his shipmates put the bird on his neck to demonstrate the shame of killing it, and it symbolizes the lasting consequences of irrational actions.
When the mariner has his first personal interaction with the mystic world, he begins to understand and accept the impact that his decisions might cause. As the mariner’s ship countered sailing without wind for several days, they came across a strange ship. As they were sailing, the mariners shipmates knew that a curse had fallen upon them when the mariner shot the albatross. As they two ships came next to each other the text tell us that, Death and LIfe-in-Death played a dice game for each of the men's lives. Death won all of the lives of the shipmates except for the mariner. When Life-in-Death won the mariners lift his fate was sealed. At this part, the mariner says, “The souls did from their bodies fly,—/ They fled to bliss or woe!/ And every soul, it passed me by,/ Like the whizz of my cross-bow!”/…(p.11) This quote highlights that the mariner is still working on understanding the repercussions of his actions. When he says, “Like the whizz of my cross-bow!” it shows that he has realized that killing the albatross was what started this chain of events. Even though the mariner knows the reason for the ship of death going to him, he still hasn't tried to redeemed himself with the higher power whether that being the mystic power facilitating the mariners encounter or the unknown spirit pushing the ship without wind.
Towards the end of the poem, the mariner comes to a spiritual realization and gains the skills to be able to make decisions with mindfulness for what might come after. After getting cursed by the Ship of Death, the mariner ends up being the only living person on the ship while still being cursed and in a trance. As he is on the ship he becomes depressed and loses all hope, but his curse is lifted after he praises the beauty of the world and makes a prayer. In this part Colebridge writes, “O happy living things! No tongue/ Their beauty might declare:/ A spring of love gushed from my heart,/ And I blessed them unaware./…”(p.13). As he described in the quote, “And a thousand thousand slimy things lived on; and so did I..” the mariner compares himself to the slimy things he has seen under the water. This quote shows the mariner realizing the beauty of nature and gains the ability to appreciate the world around him. As he compares himself to the creatures he realizes that each of his decisions, such as killing the albatross, will always have an impact and consequences that will follow. In the next line Colbride writes, “The self-same moment I could pray;/ And from my neck so free/ The Albatross fell off, and sank/ Like lead into the sea.”/…(p.13). As the Albatross falls off the mariner's neck it symbolizes the curse that was originally placed upon him after killing the albatross being lifted.
Throughout the mariner's voyage, he comes to gain the ability to think before he acts. He’s also able to be mindful and take into account the consequences that his actions might cause. In the beginning the mariner acted carelessly without any show of consequential thinking or sense of consequences but as the story progresses so does the mariner. During the middle of the story, the mariner begins to realize that each of his actions carries importance and repercussions. At the end of the poem the mariner comes to fully comprehend the consequences of his action through the nature around him. When people don't learn from their mistakes and change their action accordingly, they tend to make them again.
