Saturday, April 11, 2015

In what terms is the setting out of the ship described?

Concerning Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,"
I'm not sure what you mean by "out of the ship."  I assume you're talking about the
setting other than the ship.  I'll answer based on that
assumption.


First, there are two settings, the first of
which is a city, maybe London, in which the Ancient Mariner corners the wedding guest
and tells him his story.  I'll skip that one and talk about the main setting, the sea
and sky.


At first, the sea is bright with sunshine and the
sea is calm, then a storm hits and propels the ship south and into a sea of ice.  This
is a natural setting with natural weather.  The ship is trapped in the
ice.


The albatross arrives, however, and the setting begins
to shift toward the supernatural.  The ice splits and the ship sails to safety, due to
the presence of the bird, it is assumed.


After the Mariner
kills the albatross for no good reason, the setting continues to move to the
supernatural.  The fickle sailors go back and forth between condemning the Mariner and
praising him, but soon there is no question that the albatross is being
revenged.


In short, the sun is "bloody," no wind blows and
the ship is stranded, slimy things crawl on the sea, a skeleton ship approaches, water
snakes move in tracks of shining white.


The supernatural
setting reflects the injustice of the Mariner killing one of God's
creatures.

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