What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

Duality is perhaps the major theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Duality is the notion that all things have both good and bad within them. Coleridge's poem presents nature and humanity as having dual natures in this way.

Firstly, Coleridge does not present nature in a one-dimensional manner. It is neither a sentimentalized force of goodness nor a hostile presence intent on destroying man. Nature is both beautiful and dangerous, life-giving and untamed. Examine the mariner's description of the weather and the sea after he is cursed:

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!

That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs

Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout

The death-fires danced at night;

The water, like a witch's oils,

Burnt green, and blue and white.

Here, the natural world becomes a source of fear. Terms such as "slimy things" and "witch's oil" give the sequence a fearful, gothic tone. The mariner's sin has made it inhospitable and ugly. However, other depictions of nature as something beautiful and lovely are also present in the poem, as when the mariner looks upon the water snakes and is moved to prayer by their beauty.

Coleridge also examines the duality of man. Mankind is capable of great sin and great repentance. The same mariner who kills an albatross without much thought is also capable of blessing beautiful water snakes "unaware," finally allowing love of all living things to expiate him of his sin (hence, the albatross's corpse falling from his neck). There is even the sense that without the mariner's fall from grace and subsequent suffering alone, he would not have been able to know such divine, all-consuming love, giving the poem a sense of what Catholicism calls "felix culpa," or "fortunate fall." Hence, there is a duality even within error, making the moral universe of the poem quite complicated.

What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

One theme of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the complexity of the natural world. As an arch-Romantic, Coleridge presents the natural world as extraordinarily beautiful and inspiring. But at the same time, he demonstrates that it can also be a source of death and danger, making man vulnerable and reducing him to insignificance within the vast cosmos of he which is but a small part.

When the ancient mariner and his crewmates are drifting along on the sea, they are the victims of the awesome power of nature. The wind has died, the sun beats down fiercely, and the ocean is full of strange creatures. The men are at the mercy of the natural world, and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.

And yet, even in the midst of this sheer hell, there is beauty. The ancient mariner's eye is caught by some water-snakes swimming in the shadow of the ship. He responds to the extraordinary beauty of their colors, the “Blue, glossy green, and velvet black” in which they are attired. The mariner is so impressed by these remarkable creatures that he lets out a fulsome apostrophe:

O happy living things! no tongue

Their beauty might declare:

A spring of love gushed from my heart,

And I blessed them unaware.

Despite everything, the mariner is still struck by the beauty of the natural world that has brought such unimaginable suffering to himself and his fellow sailors.

What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

When he carelessly kills the albatross, the Mariner sins against God and nature. He sins against nature because God loves all of creation, not just humankind. The poem states:

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The theme or underlying meaning of the poem, therefore, is to show how one gets out from under a sin against God. The poem shows that this happens through the redemptive power of the imagination, an important Romantic theme.

The Mariner is guilty of killing the albatross. However, for a long time, he doesn't understand that he has done anything wrong. He can't see the beauty and wonder of God's creation. Therefore, he and his shipmates remain under a curse. It is impossible for the Mariner to achieve forgiveness until he is able to confess he has done something wrong.

Finally, when the Mariner sees and is able to respond to the beauty of the sea snakes, he shows he has developed the imagination and empathy to understand all of creation as blessed. Then the curse is lifted.

What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

The overt story of the poem is the rather terrifying tale of a sailor beset by troubles at sea.  The underlying themes and the real subjects of the poem are christianity and the supernatural.  The mariner, who evetually becomes "ancient," decides on a whim to shoot the albatross that is following the boat.  He knows this is apparently considered bad luck, but what can be the harm.

He eventually pays the price for his foolishness and is redeemed as he learns the beauty of the life of the sea and the animals within and above it and spends the remainder of his life telling others his cautionary tale.

What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

Tjhere are a number of possible themes we could point out in this famous poem, but the one that I feel is of particular relevance to today's society, given the environmental disaster that we have made and suffer, is the green message that is clearly present in this poem.

Let us remember that the Mariner is only able to pray again and expiate the curse that lies upon him when he realises fully the consequences of what was for him an unthinking and casual act. Killing the albatross was not done out of malicious intent, yet the Mariner has to accept responsibility for this crime. Part of this process is learning that all creatures in nature are just as special as other creatures. This is why when the Mariner is able to bless the water snakes, the albatross symbolically falls from his neck, as he has learnt this lesson and understands that all of nature must be cherished and possesses its own wonder and beauty.

This is why the final section of the poem in the third from last stanza seems to summarise this theme when it says:

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

As the Mariner has learnt, it is important for man to live in harmony with all of nature and all of its creatures. This is the only way to ensure that we can live in harmony with God.

What is the theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with deep questions of life and existence. Although the overt theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is that a person should love all the creatures God has created, one can nevertheless identify various metaphysical themes that the poem grapples with as well. The most obvious metaphysical topics of the poem are determinism and free will, mind and matter, and religion and spirituality.

Determinism is the concept that everything that happens is destined to happen based on events that have already ocurred. Determinism stands opposed to free will, which states that people can determine their own actions and outcomes. In "Rime," the mariner shoots the albatross for no apparent reason, and this sets in motion a series of dire consequences for him and others. A deterministic perspective would see that the mariner had no choice but to shoot the albatross; all the events of his life up to that point brought him to the place where that was what he was going to do in that situation. Interestingly, his redemption comes through no choice of his own: he looks at the water snakes and "blessed them unaware." Later, he spends his life going into an unavoidable spasm when he finds the person he must tell his tale to. He really has no free will even after he returns home.

In the poem, both mind and matter affect the mariner. He deals with significant physical problems including ice, lack of wind, desperate thirst, and a sinking boat. The mariner's mind is incapable of solving these problems; however, his mental torment does make his problems worse. He considers the curse in the dead men's eyes, he experiences friendship and fear, and he wonders at all the things happening to him. So the poem seems to suggest that both mind and matter are real and contribute to one's experience.

Religion and spirituality play a big part in the poem. Some Christian orthodoxy is displayed as references are made to the Virgin Mary and to Christ and to the hermit's ability to "shrieve" the mariner. However, the poem contains more references to the "polar spirits" that decree that the mariner must "do penance." Each "seraph-man" that occupies a dead man's corpse is another example of the spirit world presented by this poem. The mariner's ability to pray is what turns his fortune and allows his redemption. Coleridge creates a mythical spirit world that he blends with elements of Christianity and in so doing validates the idea of an unseen spiritual dimension. 

Certainly some metaphysical themes are present in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," although they are not Coleridge's primary emphasis. Nevertheless, themes of determinism, mind and matter, and religion and spirituality are evident in the poem.

What is the underlying theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and how does Coleridge express it?

Coleridge's poem contains many supernatural elements and on the surface seems to be a scary tale warning people not to kill anything in nature because all things in the world are interrelated. A seemingly isolated act can have ramifications that extend beyond a single person, as the Mariner tries to tell the wedding guest. In order to receive salvation for his thoughtless act of killing the albatross, the Mariner is doomed to tell his tale to whomever he meets. Some critics believe that the poem is a religious (Christian) allegory, but if one truly understands Christianity, one will realize that the viewpoint expresses uncertainty about religion. Also, it would not be up to a person to effect his salvation. Christianity emphasizes that salvation comes through faith, not through works, so no way would God condemn a person to tell his tale of woe in order to redeem himself.

The Bible does, however, instruct man that he is the steward of the earth and therefore must treat all creatures with respect. All creatures are not like man, however, who was created in God's image, and has a soul. So while man is steward of the earth, man himself is the most important creature and would not be punished for killing a creature, necessarily, unless, like the Mariner, it is for no reason. This act would be sinful, but would not result in eternal condemnation, as depicted in the poem.

There will be other views that will not agree with my view, but that is how I see it.

What is the main theme and ultimate goal of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

The main theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is expressed by the mariner just before he lets the wedding guests go. He states,

He prayeth well, who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast. 

He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small.

In other words, the person who will receive favor from God is the one who displays love towards all of God's creatures, including people, but also including animals and even the least admired members of creation. The theme is worked out in the plot of the poem when the mariner shoots an albatross that has been a friend to the ship's crew. Because of that cruel and senseless act, which the men at one point approve of, the crew (except the mariner) is killed and the mariner must experience "Life-in-Death." Only when the mariner looks with admiration on the water-snakes is he rewarded. His hard heart is able to pray at last, rain comes, and the polar spirits, with the help of seraph-men who inhabit the corpses, sail the ship back to harbor. The mariner must spend the rest of his life sharing his tale with people who need to hear it.

That is the theme of the poem. The goal, however, is certainly very different. One cannot help but be disappointed at the end of this harrowing tale to find this trite and somewhat shallow sentiment. Even Coleridge felt that he had been too heavy-handed in expressing the moral at the end of the poem, suggesting that the communication of the moral was not his "goal" in writing the poem. No doubt Coleridge's goal was the goal of all great poetry, namely, "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." The poet, according to Wordsworth, feels deep passions and puts those feelings into beautiful, rhythmic, lyrical words in order to allow the reader to experience those same emotions. In Coleridge's poem, the harrowing tale of the supernatural--a tale of nail-biting Gothic enchantment--arouses fear, awe, disgust, anger, joy, and relief in the reader, making it a thrilling experience. Readers have enjoyed reading about the mariner's agonies for over two hundred years, attesting to the fact that Coleridge absolutely achieved his goal. 

What is the main theme and ultimate goal of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"?

Love is the overarching theme of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." This love embraces all of creation, not just human beings, and drives the entire narrative.

Punishment follows when a mariner kills an albatross the men on his ship have fed and befriended. The poem depicts the albatross as a friendly and innocent creature, worthy of love, not destruction.

The mariner must do penance, forced to wander the earth, and unable either to sleep or die. When he blesses a sea serpent, he earns partial redemption: he is allowed to sleep. This reinforces the poem's theme about the redeeming and healing power of loving acts. Further, when the mariner tells his story to a guest en route to a wedding, he hopes both to share his wisdom as well as to earn forgiveness for his sin.

The mariner's ultimate goal is to find his final rest, while the poet has a different goal: he uses a gripping and dramatic tale to communicate a message about love's importance.