Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the story of the Romantic archetype, the Wanderer, the man with the mark of Cain, doomed to walk the earth alone and alienated from all others. What is presented to the reader is a theme of guilt and remorse, juxtaposed with the background joy of a wedding feast. The audience is unwilling, but is forced to hear the tale anyway. It seems that as a penance for what he has done, the Mariner is compelled to tell his story whenever the agony returns. This poem is part of Coleridge's daemonic group of poems, which also includes Christabel and Kubla Khan, intending a reconciliation of the poet's self-consciousness with a higher state of being, but only reaching purgatory.
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What themes should we be looking for? - Here are some examples:-
Click on the keywords to go straight to that part of the concordance.
The albatross - Look at the concordance and see how many times the albatross symbol occurs. How does it relate to themes of Christianity, the purging of sins and how can it be seen as both a symbol of luck and doom at the same time?
Death - There are several occurrences of death and dead in the poem, particularly 'dead'. Think about how death is used to make the Mariner stand out as a man doomed in his solitary existence.
The Sun and Moon - How can we associate these recurring symbols with the Mariner? Look at the concordance and think about how many times they appear and about their thematic importance. Think about what happens when the sun or moon are out, for example.
The Sea - The concordance brings up several instances of the sea. How does Coleridge use this symbol to emphasise the horror of the solitude that the Mariner has inflicted upon himself? How does it create anguish from a sense of neverending silence?
Religion - Think about the theme of religion and Christianity within the
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