Essay on The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
To hang an albatross around one's neck is to symbolize shame, but from what is
this symbol derived? Is it because an albatross is so heavy that when hung around the neck
it causes one to hang their head, as to implement shame? Or could it be that it was a figure
of speech given to one that carried a guilt that was as large and weighted as an albatross is
big and heavy, and therefore carried that shame for all to see as an albatross around the
neck? But why an albatross, which was considered to be a sign of good luck? In Samuel
Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"all questions are answered as to
how and why an albatross hung around the neck is considered to be shameful and almost a
In the beginning of Coleridge's poem, the albatross was a sign of good luck to the
men on board a lost ship. "At length did cross an Albatross... As if it had been a Christian
soul" (lines 63-65). The crew, who's ship had been driven off course by a terrible storm,
had seen this bird as an angel of God, for they knew that where there were birds, there
was land. They greeted the bird with joy, happiness, and renewed hope that they would
somehow find their way home again. They followed the omen which led them out of the
ice and fog. The albatross had saved the crew, both physically and emotionally by
increasing the ship's morale as they "...hailed it in God's name" (line 66).
Unfortunately, the crews excitement and joy came to an abrupt end as the bird was
plucked from the sky. "With my crossbow, I [the Mariner] shot the Albatross" (lines
81-82) and for apparently no reason other than he never really had appreciation for nature
or its' creatures. The entire crew was shocked and devastated, but they soon got over it
quickly, as something supernatural began to change the atmosphere and th
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