Our Careless Sins
Other people’s relevance to your life is often underappreciated. In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner the mariner in question goes on a transformative voyage at sea in which he learns the truth and importance of this statement; this mariner learns that there is nothing more valuable than the goodwill of others and nothing less valuable than their scorn.
At the beginning of the text the mariner is unaware of his impact on other entities to the point that he doesn’t know of their existence. At this point in the tale, the mariner’s ship has been carried far south, into a strange land of ice shrouded in a thick fog. Since his arrival in these unknown waters a playful seabird has followed the ship. Here Coleridge writes, in the mournful voice of the mariner, “With my cross-bow/ I shot the Albatross.” (p. 7). Here the mariner carelessly shoots his carefree entourage without knowledge of the powerful spirit that has befriended the albatross; this spirit later evokes a wrath of the elements that smites mariners shipmates as punishment for the mariner’s thoughtless action. Though the mariner is very ignorant of the cause and effect at play here he begins to learn to be more aware of others and the effect he has on them later on in his journey.
The spirit punishes the mariner for his terrible action against the albatross through the stilling of the wind and rain around the mariner’s ship, causing the sun to slowly sap the life from his crewmates as the mariner despairs at the lack of potable water. After their death the mariner feels the pain of his comrades’ invisible scorn from beyond the grave, showing a sensitivity to the thoughts of others, even those who are not standing beside him. At this point mariner laments: “An orphan’s curse would drag to hell/ A spirit from on high;/ But oh! more horrible than that/ Is the curse in a dead man's eye!” (p. 12). The mariner has now a new respectful dread for the foul feelings of others, having felt the anger in his shipmates from beyond the grave. With this new perspective the mariner is ripe to make amends for his horrible deed and soon does so.
The mariner now, after having received enough foulwill spawned from the displeasure of others, in turn spawned from his regrettable actions, finally learns of the effect that these very simple actions of careless hate can have on others' lives and of the effect their retributive actions can have on his. Here the mariner is watching the sea snakes, which he has mentioned previously in the text as a hated thing, but now seems to have a different attitude toward, perhaps because he can finally see the simple beauty in their life, if only because he is surrounded by death. The mariner here praises these beings: “O happy living things! no tongue/ Their beauty might declare:/ A spring of love gush'd from my heart,/ And I bless'd them unaware:/ Sure my kind saint took pity on me,/ And I bless'd them unaware”(p. 13). Now it seems the mariner has finally seen the value in the giving of kindness from the depth of his heart and is rewarded by the very spirit that first punished him for the death of its friend with a lifting of the curse that it placed on him in retribution for his hateful act of shooting the albatross.
The mariner, now at the end of his journey, has finally learned of the impact the actions of others can have on his life. He has gone from carelessly committing destructive acts to recognizing and feeling the hurt he has caused in others, and finally, to learning to be a better person and to give kindness to those he would have harmed before. This is the sort of awareness and compassion is something everyone should strive for in their lives if only to stave off their own hate-induced foul weather.
