Thursday, January 28, 2010

God in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Throughout "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the sun and the moon are referenced many times. The sun is referenced eleven times, while the moon is referenced a whopping fourteen times. Both the sun and the moon symbolize God in the poem, but each represents a different side of God. The sun represents the wrathful, vengeful side of God that punishes wrongdoings. During the day, when the sun comes out, the breeze pushing the ship suddenly stops and the ship becomes stranded in the middle of the sea. The sun is so hot and bright that it dries up all the water and the crew's throats become extremely dry and parched. This eventually leads to the death of all except the Mariner, who is being punished for killing the albatross. After seven days of being parched and staring at all the dead corpses, the Mariner was still unable to die and was also unable to pray during this time. But when the moon finally rose, all the sea creatures that the Mariner saw before as ghastly and slimy, he now saw as beautiful. He then found himself able to pray, and he blessed them. Blessed spirits then inhabited the crew's bodies, and their work propelled the ship forward. The Mariner returns home by moonlight. All these good things happened at night when the moon was out. The moon represents the compassionate and forgiving God, which forgave the Mariner when he saw the beasts as beautiful and blessed them. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" can definitely be seen as a Christian allegory when you consider that the sun and the moon represent the two sides of God.
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t164/phraseology/SunGod.jpg
http://files.myopera.com/princess_nefretete/blog/MoonGoddess.jpg