While reading "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", I was relieved to see that there were side notes that told what happened in a certain stanza. Without those I would not have been able to grasp what was really happening in the poem. Even though I did not find this poem difficult to understand, since I summarized each part's stanza's while I was reading the poem. At first, I thought that the Wedding-Guest was actually part of the tale instead of the Mariner telling him the tale, but I missed the transition.
I did not really like this poem, except for the fact that there was an actual meaningful point to the story. Since the Mariner had to tell his tale to certain people who were inhospitable to others that had done them no wrong, in order to try to help that person change their ways and see that they were wrong like the Mariner was at first. In a way a think that the lesson from the Mariner's tale is an important lesson that should be taken into account today, since I do not think you should be rude or disrespectful to someone if they do not deserve it. The main thing that I did not like about this poem was that it was highly unrealistic. For example, the wild winds ended up taking them to the South Pole and a sea bird randomly happened to be flying by and ended up helping them.
I did not really like this poem, except for the fact that there was an actual meaningful point to the story. Since the Mariner had to tell his tale to certain people who were inhospitable to others that had done them no wrong, in order to try to help that person change their ways and see that they were wrong like the Mariner was at first. In a way a think that the lesson from the Mariner's tale is an important lesson that should be taken into account today, since I do not think you should be rude or disrespectful to someone if they do not deserve it. The main thing that I did not like about this poem was that it was highly unrealistic. For example, the wild winds ended up taking them to the South Pole and a sea bird randomly happened to be flying by and ended up helping them.
In the Mariner's tale I felt bad for all the crew member's that ended up dying because the Mariner shot the Albatross. But I also feel bad for the Mariner since he will have to live with what he has done for as long as he continues to live. But, if the crew members never died and the Mariner didn’t realize the true beauty of the snakes, then he would have never learned his lesson and there would not be a moral to the story. One thing that I found odd though, was that the lady spirit considered all of the crew's lives to be some kind of game, since she rolled dice to see what boat, DEATH or LIFE-AND-DEATH that they would go on.
Discussion Questions:
Do you think that the Mariner purposely got LIFE-AND-DEATH and the whole crew got DEATH, in order teach him a lesson and to make him feel miserable about shooting the Albatross? Discussion Questions:
Do you think that the deaths of the crew members were necessary, in order for the Mariner to be able to tell his tale to others that need to hear it?
When you think about it, it is a shame, and frankly does seem a tad unnecessary that an entire crew of sailors had to die so that just one of them could learn a lesson. I mean, it is an important ideal, to be a hospitable person, but I would like to think there are less corpse strewn ways of getting that point across.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, but remember that the sailors were fickle, too. First they loved the bird, then they hated it, and then they loved it again. By blaming the albatross for bad winds, they participate in the Mariner's sin almost as much as if they had helped him pull the trigger. Remember, too, that according to the theology that Coleridge draws on, a sin is a sin, no matter how great or small, you are still culpable in the eyes of God.
ReplyDelete