The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Flashcards
What are the elements of crime seen in the poem?
A crime of some magnitude and its consequences Transgression Moral framework Settings Guilt Violence Motives and their absence Pursuit of the criminal Punishment and confession Victims Suffering Accusation Trial Justice/Injustice
How does Colerige explore ‘a crime of some magnitude and its consequences’ as an element of crime?
The Mariners shooting of the albatross is quickly established so Coleridge can focus on the consequences of his actions
How does Coleridge explore ‘Transgression’ as an element of crime?
Mariner transgresses against nature: in shooting the bird he disrupts universal order
Mariner transgresses against God by shooting the albatross (the Christian Soul) - allegorical murder of christ
How does Coleridge explore ‘Moral Framework’ as an element of crime?
There is a frame narrative - the story of the mariner and wedding guest
There is a embedded narrative
How does Coleridge explore ‘Settings’ as an element of crime?
Remote place - away from civilisation
How does Coleridge explore ‘Guilt’ as an element of crime?
The poem’s story focuses on the Mariner’s recognition that he has ‘done a hellish thing’.
He stops the wedding guest because he is filled with a ‘woeful agony’
His guilt drives him to tell his tale and he explains at the end that the recurring need to unburden his guilt is the pattern of his life: his heart will burn until his ghastly tale is told.
How does Coleridge explore ‘violence’ as an element of crime?
The killing of the albatross is an act of violence against nature and a random act of murder.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Motives and their absence’ as an element of crime?
The Mariner’s motives for the killing of the albatross are interesting as there are none, but much could be said about the randomness of the killing. The randomness could signify man’s arrogance, his seeing himself as being at the centre of the universe, and his thoughtless destruction of other living things.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Pursuit of the criminal’ as an element of crime?
There is also no obvious ‘detection’ here; but if the notion of detection is expanded to include those who pursue the criminal with an eye to bringing him to justice, then the Mariner is pursued by the spirits from the land of mist and snow, the inhabitants of the Life in Death ship, the Voices who comment on the Mariner’s ‘wrong’ and his inner belief that he is being pursued by ‘a frightful fiend’ who treads close behind him.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Punishment and Confession’ as an element of crime?
Isolation is his punishment: his crew members’ accusation of him, the bizarre movements of the ship, his belief that he is being followed, the hostility of nature and God, the meeting with Life in Death, the death of the crew members, their ghostly return to life, the ship’s going down like lead, the call to be shriven and his recurring agony. Confession on a simple level is the Mariner’s entreating of the Hermit ‘O shrieve me, shrieve me holy man’, but his telling of his tale is an extended confession.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Victims’ as an element of crime?
The albatross is a victim, a symbol of goodness and hospitality.
The crew could also be seen as victims, as could the pilot and the pilot’s boy. It can also be argued that the hapless wedding guest is a victim, forced to miss the wedding celebration.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Suffering’ as an element of crime?
There is much suffering in the tale: the Mariner and crew being without water at the equator, the Mariner being cut off from God, and then, from time to time, being wrenched with a woeful agony.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Accusation’ as an element of crime?
There is accusation in the poem when the crew accuses the Mariner – ‘Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, / That made the breeze to blow’, but having accused him they then condone his actions (‘Twas right said they…!’) making themselves accomplices, another key aspect of crime writing.
How does Coleridge explore ‘Trial’ as an element of crime?
The nature of the poem and the strange supernatural world that Coleridge creates do not contain any sense of a conventional trial, but what happens to the Mariner is a kind of trial (the spirits/voices act as judges: ‘the man hath penance done and penance more will do’).
How does Coleridge explore ‘Justice/Injustice’ as an element of crime?
A very harsh justice operates in the world of the Ancient Mariner according to some: all this punishment for killing a bird; but then if the bird represents the life force then there is justice, because the Mariner commits a terrible act.
