The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner: A Journey Towards .

3While most commit callous acts with a motive, the Mariner apparently does not have anyreasons to kill the bird. This further complicates the moral dilemma, and points to the inherentdark side of human personality. Humans have the inherent depravity to commit crimes againstothers; there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Humans are like that. What is wrong is notaccepting the responsibility for our deeds, and projecting our dark side onto others. Thiseccentric behaviour falsely justifies and condones a wrong and upsets the moral geography of asociety.The Rime concerns itself with questions that are an integral part of human psyche andsociety. Do the consequences of our actions justify the action? Is virtue/vice consequential ornon-consequential? Why do we do something good or bad without any apparent motive? Whydoes a right become wrong and a wrong right? These are some of the questions that the Rimeasks us and they have been an essential part of human existence. They are certainly not easybecause there is no absolute answer to them. Perhaps these are some of the questions that someof the readers find difficult to handle: the poem does involve us in difficult moral questions.Most critics, if not all, however, agree on the uniqueness and greatness of this poem. An endlessline of critical tradition, perpetually cataloging the Rime, is a testimony of its all time greatness.Those who liked the poem were fascinated with it; others to whom it did not appeal weredisinclined to read it for the second time. Hazlitt eulogizes the poem in these words:Of all Mr. Coleridge’s productions, the Ancient Mariner is the only one that wecould with confidence put into any person’s hand, on whom we wished to impressa favourable idea of his extraordinary powers. Let whatever other objections bemade to it, it is unquestionably a work of genius—of wild, irregular,overwhelming imagination, and has that rich, varied movement in the verse,which gives a distant idea of the lofty or changeful tones of Mr. Coleridge’s voice(48).

4While Hazlitt generously praises the poem and its author, Wordsworth, who later on thought ofthe Rime as “an albatross around the neck of his Lyrical Ballads (153),” was discourteouslyapprehensive enough to publish the poem in the subsequent issues of the Lyrical Ballads:The Poem of my Friend has indeed great defects; first, that the principal personhas no distinct character, either in his profession of Mariner, or as a human beingwho having been long under the control of supernatural impressions might besupposed himself to partake of something supernatural: secondly, that he does notact , but is continually acted upon: thirdly, that the events having no necessaryconnection do not produce each other; and lastly , that the imagery is somewhattoo laboriously accumulated (Brett and Jones 277).But Lamb’s letter to Wordsworth is one of praise for the tale’s effect and its wondermentsthough he has some reservations about the “unmeaning miracles”3 of the poem. He dislikes themiraculous events of the poem but is nonetheless possessed by its story. The Mariner’s feelings,in an enchanting atmosphere, transport him to a magical world. Regarding allegation about thecharacter and profession of the Mariner, Lamb contends that like the “little wonderments” ofGulliver’s Travels the poet uses his imaginative skillfulness in creating an atmosphere in whichthe mind accepts all that takes place during the action of the poem.In his opinion thenightmarish experiences of the Mariner are so overwhelming as to “bury all individuality ormemory of what he was” (Brett & Jones 277).4Coleridge’s introduction of certain changes in the poem’s title due to its adversereception generated a literary debate concerning its admirers and adversaries. For some, thepoem’s language and meaning were incomprehensible for which reasons Coleridge revised thepoem’s title as The Ancient Mariner: A Poet’s Reverie, removing all its archaic words andchanging the structure of it syntax. Subsequently he also introduced into the poem “marginalglosses” to make the meaning more intelligible.5 But Lamb’s displeasure at Coleridge’s removalof archaic words and phrases from the Rime and changing its title is worth noting. He praises the

5poet’s skillfulness in describing the Mariner’s feelings and emotions under the circumstances towhich every reader can relate (Brett & Jones 277). In other words, Lamb appreciatesColeridge’s poetic ability in inducing an atmosphere of refined magic and aura of susceptibilityfor the reader where personal likes and dislikes are suspended forthwith.Beer (1977) quotes Southey who in his review records the ill-reception of the poem: “Wedo not sufficiently understand the story to analyze it. It is a Dutch attempt at German sublimity”(179).6 Today the Rime is no more considered “A Dutch attempt at German sublimity” butrather an attempt at time-tested human concerns. Its beauty lies in its general relevance to multifaceted human issues; the numerous shades of meanings drag this relevance on to the everchanging and ever extending issues of life. What were unimaginable in the past are the familiarconcerns of today, and are reflected in the body narrative of the Rime. This is how a thread ofuniversality runs through its symbolic structure extending its interpretative horizons to ever morelayers and shades of meanings.John Spencer Hill expounds on why some of the critics were disgusted with the Rime.He says, “Since ‘The Ancient Mariner’ could not be slotted neatly into any existing balladclassification, the easiest solution was simply to invoke custom and convention to declare thework incomprehensible” (Hill 153). But the meaning of the poem became clearer to readers withthe changing attitudes of readership that Hill puts into the “reader-response” theory. 7 He says:In a hesitant trickle at first, which shortly became a respectable stream and greweventually into a swollen torrent, excited readers found the enchanted fabric of theMariner’s world to be inwrought with figures dim. Patterns of meaning emerged,were captured and tamed into expository prose, were refined and developed andexpanded by successive generations of interpreters. At last the ‘The AncientMariner’ made sense—or at least ‘sense’ could be found in it. But as meaningsproliferated, their very plurality became a problem (155).

6Defending the Rime, Fruman gives his reasons for why critics did not like the poem. Hesuggests that the readers judged the poems on the standards prevalent at that time. He opinesthat the contemporary reviewers’ familiarity with the ballad tradition labeled the ‘AncientMariner’ as a “mad German poet’s extravagance” rather than a simple English ballad.8 In otherwords, the work is a little too novel and original for them.Although unintelligible to some of its contemporary readers, the poem was, nonetheless,evaluated on the bases of its artistic beauties. After the insertion of marginal glosses only a fewwere able to understand a partial nuance of its significance. In the words of David Perkins:“Though incomprehensible, the poem was widely read, if only for its vivid imagery, spookiness,and emotional intensity” (426). Ingenuity in story-telling for the basic purpose of ‘securing thewilling suspension of disbelief’ of the reader was considered as one of the most distinguishingfeatures of the poem.Thomas B. Shaw writes about the poem’s “medievalism” and “romanticism” in thefollowing words:The Rime of the Ancient Mariner [is] a wild, mystical, phantasmagoric narrative,most picturesquely related in the old English ballad measure, and in language towhich is skillfully given an air of antiquity in admirable harmony with thespectral character of the events. The whole poem is a splendid dream, filling theear with the strange and floating melodies of sleep, and the eye with a shiftingvaporous succession of fantastic images, gloomy or radiant (2182).Peter Bayne generously commends Coleridge for bringing together a dream vision in such afascinating manner. In his opinion, it is the poet’s “poetic effect" and “poetic rapture” thattransport the reader into a world where rationalism and skepticism give way to an all-prevailingimaginative talisman. With the refinement of his imagination, Coleridge masterfully removes allthe crudities of the otherwise ghostliness and terrors of the poem (2182).

7One of the most distinctive features of the Rime is its atmosphere of unreality renderedreal to a particular universal human faculty, which William Watson believes, the poetaccomplishes by securing the faith and confidence of the reader through the sheer force of hisstorytelling. The poet creates a hazy threshold of entrances and exits, as if in a snooze, from thevintage point of which the reader is presented with a panoramic view of dreaming and wakingalternatively. The hypnotized reader, with the Wedding-guest, is led into an atmosphere thatcarries its own law of credibility. The poem’s opening lines suck us out of our world. Like thewedding guest, we too are reluctant to lend our ears to the Mariner, but then he holds us:He holds him with his glittering eye-The Wedding-Guest stood still,And listens like a three years child:The Mariner hath his will (13-16).Soon, we are out of our world, and are with the Mariner where the poet is at liberty to populateit with his dreaming brain.John G. Lockhart highly eulogizes the poem for its artistic beauties of sights, sounds, andromance. He says:It is a poem to be felt--cherished--mused upon--not to be talked about--notcapable of being described--analyzed--or criticized. It is the wildest of all thecreations of genius--it is not like a thing of the living, listening, moving world-the very music of its words is like the melancholy mysterious breath of somethingsung to the sleeping ear--its images have the beauty--the grandeur--theincoherence of some mighty vision. The loveliness and the terror glide before usin turns--with, at one moment, the awful shadowy dimness--at another, the yetmore awful distinctness of a majestic dream (77).Praising the poetic excellence of the Rime, Leigh Hunt elucidates that it is only throughimagination, being a highly fecundating human faculty, that we feel one with the rest of thecreation. Our spontaneous responses to the circumstances of the poem, in his view, are a

8testimony of how we are still alive to a human response no matter real or imagined. In hisopinion the Rime has a tremendous potential to arouse such sensations (82).Perkins estimates almost a period of hundred years (1860-1960) in which the poem wasread and understood in a Christian background (426). This period approximately approaches theVictorian Age that was highly sophisticated in morality and religious matters. The criticaltemperament of the age reflects a corresponding evaluative tradition highlighting its cherishedideals. Gertrude Garrigues’ reading of the poem is somewhat religio-moral. The Mariner’sjourney is taken as a symbolic initiation of man’s voyaging into worldly affairs. The viciousweb of life slowly and gradually estranges him from a secure sense of relatedness with the rest ofhis brethrens. This bereavement is two-fold: he becomes a stranger and alien not only to theoutside world but most pathetically to himself as well. He loses the sense of the “Other”intrinsically and extrinsically. Garrigues argues that the albatross (man’s innate innocence)comes across his way to rescue him from utter annihilation, but he slaughters it unconsciously.This unconscious killing Garrigues calls the Original Sin from where Man’s re-journeying ofregeneration commences to its partial or complete redemption (2200-1).Elizabeth Nitchie discusses the moral implications of the poem from differentperspectives. She particularly refers to Mrs. Barbauld’s much-quoted objection to the poem’slack of moral, and Coleridge’s subsequent reply to that. She responds not only to people likeMrs. Barbauld, but also Wordsworth, who was critical of the poem’s causality dynamics. Sheargues that since the poem is reflecting a dream world, it subscribes only to that much reality; itsworld carries its own logic and probability no matter how much devious and digressive. QuotingProfessor Newton P. Stallknecht she concurs on the point that the shooting of the albatross is thereplacement of “feeling” by “reason” resulting in a spiritual dreariness and dryness. To bring

9back the lost soul to its original source of fertility, a loving disposition is to be regenerated toencompass the whole of creation into wholeness. Only then the final moral of the poem (“Heprayeth best, who loveth best.”) will acclimatize its worth and value (867,870,872).One of the most popular readings of the poem has always been a Christian reading. Mostof such readers connect the poem with the Original Sin but differ from one another at times in asignificant way. J. A. Stuart, for example, changes the venue of the Original Sin to a “PreAdamatic, noumenal” position as a spiritual apostasy rather than a “phenomenal” conscioushappening. Stressing the origin of the evil in the unconscious of the psyche he links the idea toJung’s concept of the “Shadow.” In other words, the commission of sin in man (Adam) is totallyvolitional--the will as potentially overpowering any other consideration (77-8, 84).Reading the Cain-Abel analogy in the poem, critics have produced numerousinterpretative versions to glorify the crime of Cain with the argument that Cain’s regenerationfrom his crime and progressive self-redemption constitute a continuum towards an individuatedself (Foakes quoting Ricardo Quinones 50). That means the Mariner, like Cain, is potentiallycapable of mastering the situations he has created for himself either knowingly or unknowingly.Contrary to the passivity of Abel, Cain flamboyantly confesses to the gravity of his crime andbraces for all possible consequences. This is what the Mariner does while facing the stark realityof his crime. R.A. Foakes defends the Mariner’s act based on the logic thatthe possible implications of his act are one of individuation, an act that gives himenduring life in spite of the death of the crew, and establishes his claim to bedifferent, to break the barriers, to boldly do what no one has done before, and tocry against anonymity and against heaven, ‘I, myself, I’ (51).Modern approaches towards religion (from around the first quarter of twentieth centuryonwards) have become much antagonistic. Sustaining an almost orthodox ideology of religionvis-à-vis a potentially equipped modernistic mind is a Herculean task. One such defense comes

10from Sandra M. Levy. Replying to Monti’s version of theodicy based on a “communal,compassionate suffering with others” (which Levy calls “horizontal pull”), disregarding the roleof divine Providence, Levy introduces the concept of “vertical pull.” She contends that there isalways a “mysterious” presence of the “Other” in our experience of the “classics” no matter howmuch removed in time or culture. Justifying the presence of evil in an almost benignly createduniverse, she quotes Ricoeur and says that the eruption of evil is a positive “schema” in order tocleanse the spiritual, physical, or social defilement. Levy concludes that the experience of painand terror afford human beings an opportunity to go through “a vision of the inner life of God(np).” In the Rime this vision is the aesthetic experience given to the Mariner, to the Weddingguest, and to the reader in the terrifying shadows of horrors and terrors-- more longed for, morevalued, more endeared.J. B. Beer uses the concept of “Cabbala/Shechinah” to relate the whole episode of the“Fall” with the loss of the Shechinah. His argument implicitly touches Jungian anima/animusdynamics in which a harmonious coexistence of both is considered an ideal psychic equilibrium.9The divide is a disaster explicitly shown in the Rime:The cabbalistic doctrine, like the others, carries certain implications concerningthe Fall of Man. At the “Fall”, man was deprived of the Shechinah which hadhitherto surrounded him, and the creative principles fell apart in to male andfemale .the Shechinah is lost and can only be regained at rare moments ofexaltation--one of them being when complete love and harmony exist between aman and woman (155).Beer further explains the Rime in the context of the ancient Egyptian mythological lore of thesun-serpent relation. He says:In terms of the Egyptian hierogram, the Mariner in killing the Albatrossdestroys the connection between the sun and the serpent. In consequence, thetwo become separate, and equally alien to man. The serpent, representative offlesh, becomes loathsome and corrupt, while the sun, now that the true inwardvision is lost, is apprehended only as heat or wrath. Or, in psychological terms,

11the Mariner is trapped between the fearful wrath of his conscience, which is allthat remains of his Reason, and his consequent loathing of the flesh (157).During the second half of the twentieth century, an interest in the Freudian psychologygains momentum. Norman Fruman resorts to a minute psychological analysis of Coleridge’stextual and contextual juxtaposition (using his notebooks, correspondences, memoirs, lectures,and biographies etc) so as to find out psychological reasons for writing a literary piece. Thebook is extremely informative owing to its sometime startling revelations. For instance, corelating Coleridge’s personal situations with those of the Mariner, Fruman writes:The Mariner’s sufferings are Coleridge’s. The death of the crew and destructionof the ship may represent symbolically the loss of one’s nurturing environment.Surges of hostility, of murderous rage, against those with whom one competes forlove—against siblings for the love of the parents, against the father for the love ofthe mother—this must be atoned for by rejecting all familial and fleshy comforts(404).Maud Bodkin comes up with an archetypal approach to the Mariner’s story. She explainsthe great imagery of the poem with the Jungian archetypal concepts and relates the Mariner’sjourney to the “Night Journey” of great mythical heroes. She relates the somewhat confusingpatterns of dream-imagery of the poem to those felt by the individual in the emotionalexperiences of waking dreams, myth, and legends concluding that it is the absence of customarycontrol that render them incomprehensible ordinarily. Sublime themes of universal scalearranged with the fine sensibility of the poet-artist generate a train of responses in the readers’emoti

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”: A Journey towards Individuation The strategy of my dissertation project is to take the fictional character of the Ancient Mariner as a particular test case of psychic processes and move towards a general delineation of timeless human psyche.Author: Shah Zahid AliPublish Year: 2011