How important is the weddings guest to what you consider to be Coleridge's purposes in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?

To make the poem and the tale of the Mariner more realistic the poet occasionally intervenes with parenthetical statement. The authorial voice can be heard in part I in stanzas eight and ten when the Mariner describes how the wedding guest ‘beat his breast’ in frustration as he watched the wedding proceeding. This also bring about the contrast between the moods o the protagonists and those around then creating a sense of isolation that the cursed Mariner must experienced continuously.

The last stanza in part one displays language of an intense nature communicating to the reader the wedding guest’s horror at the expression on the Mariner’s deeply troubled emotions. This stanza is an excellent illustration of Coleridge’s craftsmanship as he is able to preserve the reality of the situation by suggesting the Mariner has reached a crucial point in the story. The mystery of the bird’s presence and the mariner’s supernatural appearance I finally revelled. This supernatural appearance of the Mariner yet again shows that the wedding guest is sued to represent us, because through him listening to the horrid tale of the Mariner we are able to be educated about the importance of having respect to God’ creation.

In part four the wedding guest interrupts the Marinar’s tale to say ‘I fear thee, ancient Mariner/ I fear thy skinny hand’ and ‘thy glittering eye’; he fears that the Mariner was one of the ‘four times fifty’ men that  died. The mariner puts his fear to rest with ‘Fear not, thou wedding guest! This body dropt not down.’ The repetition of ‘fear’ conveys that the Mariner felt being the only ‘living’ man on the ship’. Here Colerdige  deliberately makes a Christian allegory here when the Mariner says he is the only ‘living’ man on the ship, as it makes the Mariner sound like God because when we are all dead the only person who is immortal is God.

In my opinion Colerdige uses supernatural kind of imagery to the Mariner because he wants the wedding guest to listen to what he has to say and use it throughout his life. Perhaps its this kinds imagery the Mariner posses along with his horrid tale that makes the wedding guest ‘A sadder and a wiser man’ at the end of the poem. And through that we also make up ‘A sadder and a wiser’ people ‘the morrow morn’. This I because the wedding guest is our surrogate and through him we are able to understand the tale of the Mariner and use it us a lesson throughout our life. Jut like the wedding guest who ‘Turned from the bridegroom’s door’ we are also turned from our wicked ways because we are so powerfully over taken by the tale of the Marnier therefore just as the Mariner saves the wedding guest we are saved by the wedding guest because we follow his action and turn away from our sins before it is too late.