Themes of the Ancient Mariner
Q
2 Discus the theme of sin and redemption
in coleridgeis Ancient Mariner.
“
The Ancient Mariner is a myth of guilt
and redemption, but of course it is also much more.” (C.M. Bowra) Substantiate.
Answer
: Introduction :
At the inner level, the plot of
The Rime of The Ancient Mariner is so rich in themes that it represents
a very complex vision of life. Those themes
bring the romantic tale of wonder and mystery closer to life and its
fundamental issues. The poem has been
examined from two different visions -
i) Religious, or rather, Sacramental Vision
ii) Psychological Vision.
Sacramental
Vision : Theme of Sin and Redemption
According
to this vision, The Ancient Mariner is a story of sin, punishment, and
reconciliation. C.M. Bowra puts it as “
a myth of guilt and redemption”, and Graham Hough as “ an allegory of guilt and regeneration.” This theme is the outcome of the religious
interpretation of the poem taken at its face value. The Ancient Mariner and his shipmates are
Christians - Roman Catholics. Their
belief in the supernatural is in
conformity with the Christian religion of they day.
The
Sin - The inner plot also supports this
theme of sin, punishment and redemption.
The Ancient Mariner inhospitably kills the innocent Albatross. It is significantly an utterly unjustified
act. With reference to God’s creation,
it is a sin, according to Christian religion.
The sin is committed at the end of Part I. The shipmates judge things according to the
principle of utility. So first they
blame the Ancient Mariner for killing
the bird of good fortune. But later they
justify his act of killing the bird when the whether turns out to be fair and
good. Thus they become accomplices in
the sin, in Part - II of the poem.
The
Punishment
a) Physical Pain - The killing of the
Albatross is, first of all, a murder in the physical world. So the consequences of the murder first
spring from the physical world, and fall upon the guilty. The ship is brought to the Pacific Ocean, near the Equator. Then it is becalmed, suddenly. The bloody
sun rains scorching heat over the
Mariner, his shipmates, and his ship. Their drinking water is spent up. So
they have not a drop to drink.
Oppressed by Scorching heat and extreme thirst, they groan (cry) in
agony (misery or pain).
b) Spiritual Consequences -
The Mariner also suffers from the spiritual consequences of his
sin. He is disgusted to see slimy things
crawl with legs upon the slimy sea. At
night he notices death-fires dancing around his ship. His shipmates have a dream in which they are
told of the Polar Spirit that is avenging the killing of the Albatross upon all
of them. Next morning they pluck the
cross off, and hang the dead Albatross about, his neck. They also stare at him with cursing
looks. And he feels remorse for his sin
for the first time. This happens by the
end of Part - II.
In Part III, therefore, he is condemned to the
Punishment of life in Death. It is a
lesser punishment because of his feeling of remorse whereas his shipmates are
condemned to death. A phantom ship
arrives in the evening. Life-in-Death
wins the Miariner while Death wins his shipmates. So when the star dogged moon rises, his two
hundred shipmates fall down dead one by one.
And the soul of each passes by him with the sound like that of his arrow
that killed the Albatross.
Feeling of Utter Loneliness and that of Intense
Remorse
In Part IV, the Ancient Mariner suffers from the
feeling of utter loneliness and also that of remorse excited by the sight of
the dead bodies of his shipmates. The remorse is also enhanced by the feeling
of utter isolation. It is a great penance
he does unawares.
The Theme of Isolation
The Ancient Mariner’s loneliness is so pathetic that
D.H. Harding is impressed to remark that the sense of isolation is the central
theme of the poem. He observes :
“ The human experience round which Coleridge centers the poem is
surely the depression and the sense of
isolation and unworthiness which the Mariner describes in Part IV. He feels isolates to a degree that baffles
expression and reduces him to the important, repetitive emphasis which becomes
doggerel in schoolroom reading :-
Alone, alone, all, all alone
Alone on a wide wise sea. (II 232-3)
At the same time he is not just physically isolated,
but is socially abandoned, even by those with the greatest obligations :-
And never a sain took pity on
My soul in agony. (II.
234-25)
This, the central experience, comes almost at the
middle of the poem. It is the nadir of
depression to which the earlier stanzas sink and the rest of the poem describes what is in
part recovery and in part aftermath.”
REDEMPTION THROUGH LOVE FOR LIFE IN NATURE
(a) Favour of Angels - To return to the theme of
sin and redemption, the Mariner’s intense remorse for having killed the Albatross and a sense of utter
loneliness lead him to become reconciled
with life in Nature. So when he notices
some pretty sea-snakes, he praises their beauty and blesses them unawares,
because of “ a spring of love” for life
in Nature. And as soon as he blesses
them, the curse is partially expiated. “
The self-same moment”, he is able to pray, and does pray to God. And his prayer wins him the favour of Angels.
(This happens at the end of Part IV.)
And the dead Albatross falls off his neck.
To sum up, the killing of the Albatross, a “creature of Nature, alienates him from
Nature and causes him utter isolation.
Then love for the sea-snakes, which is love for life in Nature, redeems
his soul from the sin. It also enables him to pray and to win the
favour of angels. Yet he is still guilty
of causing the death of two hundred mariners through the sin committed by him alone. So he is still alienated from God.
Becomes Reconciled With God
The angels send him sleep and rain. Then they enter the mariners’ dead bodies and
reanimate them. The Polar Spirit
moves the ship in obedience to them as far as the Equator. And
the angels work the ship. But
they stare at the Mariner with the same
cursing looks the mariners died with.
It fills him with great remorse
for their death. The remorse is again a
penance which finally enables him to become reconciled with God. This happens in Part VI. So the angels bring him back to his home
port (Part VII).
PSYCHOLOGICAL VISION : The Theme of One Life
The psychological vision goes deeper than that of
Christianity. It looks upon the killing
of the Albatross as a crime against one, universal, life. According to this vision, there is only one life
in man and Nature. An the killing of the
bird is without any defensible
provocation, motivation, or justification.
Once the Mariner looks upon the
becalming of the ship and the oppressive heat of the burning sun as the
consequences of his brutal act, he gets a deep psychic wound. His guilt complex gives rise to great
emotional disturbances in him. He has halluncinations born of his
superstitious belief in the supernatural.
Ultimately, the healing power of love for sea-snakes (i.e. Nature) remedies his psychological diseases. His prayer becomes another effective
remedy. That he is greatly impressed by
the redeeming power of imaginative love is evident from his teaching to the
wedding-guest, viz.,
TWO BASIC THEMES
There are two basic themes Coleridge;s Ancient
Mariner is built upon. The primary theme
is “ The Theme of One Life”. Viewed from
sacramental vision ( i.e. Christian point-of-view), it appears as the theme of
sin and redemption. The secondary theme
is “ The Theme of the Imagination”. It
is “concerned with the context of values in which the fable is presented
“. The two themes are finally fused in
the poem.
Each of them is necessary for the existence of the
other.
Conclusion :à
The view of the theme of sin
and redemption, or of guilt and regeneration, is plausible indeed. It is also broadly acceptable. According to J. Colmer, the theme of sin and
redemption does not explain the death of the ship’s crew. The actual sinner remains alive and gets redemption while those who justify his act
thoughtlessly die. Dissatisfied with
this theme Graham Hough remarks : “ The poem is more than an allegory of guilt
and regeneration.” This critic is in
favour of a psychological interpretation.
He writes : “ In ordinary sense the Mariner is very little guilty. But he has broken the bond between
himself and the life of Nature, and in consequences
becomes spiritually dead. What happens
to him when he blesses the water-sankes in the Tropical calm is a psychic
rebirth. The whole poem is indeed a
vivid presentation of the rebirth myth as it is conceived by Jung - the
psychologist.”
Thus Graham Hough again turns us towards the theme
of the one life and of the redeeming
power of imaginative love. To be on the
safe side, we can re-state Prof. Warren’s view that The Ancient Mariner’s story
is built upon two basic themes - the Theme of One Life and the Theme of
Imagination. The poem has also been
given symbolist interpretation, and the Theme of imagination admits of such
interpretation too. Evidently the two
basic themes are acceptable.
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