The Mariner's Journey
Death is inevitable, so what matters is living life to the fullest. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an ancient mariner tells a story about his journey across the sea. At the start of his voyage, he is a man who doesn’t appreciate nature and his surroundings. After making an impulsive mistake, the mariner is cursed by Death. He learns his actions will never be forgotten and he must suffer through the pain.
At the beginning of his journey, the mariner is careless and ungrateful for his surroundings. While the mariner’s ship sails off to sea, it’s blown off course by a wind storm. The ship is sailing through icy waters when they encounter an albatross. The albatross continues to come back to the boat every day to interact with the mariner. Then one day the mariner acts impulsively without imagining consequences and shoots the bird with a crossbow. This action shows an example of the mariner being careless at the beginning of his journey. The text reads, “With my cross-bow, I shot the albatross.” As they continue to drift out of the icy waters into the open sea, the mariner’s crew makes him wear the albatross around his neck as a burden for killing the bird.
After having to wear the albatross around his neck, the mariner becomes more aware of nature and realizes that his action will lead to consequences. After killing the albatross his crew is frustrated at him for acting recklessly. They are worried that the mariner’s action could result in a curse. The mariner comes upon Life and Death who are sailing in a boat as well. Life and Death play a game of dice and Death wins. “The many men so beautiful and they all dead did lie.” It seems like Death kills all of the men except for the mariner as a consequence of killing the albatross. The mariner now begins to realize that his reckless action will have consequences.
The mariner realizes his action won’t be forgotten and he must live with the consequences of his actions. The mariner is cursed so he then must tell his story to someone to get rid of the pain. At the end of the poem, the mariner says, “Since then, at an uncertain hour /That agony returns/ And till my ghastly tale is told/ This heart within me burns.” After telling his story many times the mariner comes upon a man who is at a wedding. Because of the curse put on the mariner by his shipmates, he has the abrupt need to tell his story to the wedding guest.
The mariner starts off his journey by being an ungrateful reckless sailor. Throughout the journey, the mariner becomes more aware of nature and learns his action will lead to consequences, although he discovers this when it is already too late. The mariner must live with the consequences for the rest of his life. He discovers his unthoughtful actions can be temporarily forgotten but they will always come back to haunt you, no matter how big or small.
