One of the themes Coleridge believes in and tries to show in his poem is that man can commit errors, but he can be forgiven for his acts but only if he repents himself. The author shows that in the poem when the Ancient Mariner kills the Albatross for no reason, then when he changes and starts to be sorry for what he did he repents himself by taking a self-punishment, which is to travel around the world and tell this story to strangers as it is said in part VII of the poem: “Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched with a woful agony, which forced me to begin my tale; and then it let me free. Since then, at an uncertain hour, that agony returns: and till my ghastly tale is told, this heart within me burns.”
The meaning of this quote, being that if the Ancient mariner doesn’t tell his tale his heart will start burning him, shows that the author uses supernatural events to help introduce his themes, and the fact he uses dark, terrifying and supernatural events give more importance to those themes, and that is what the author wants to accomplish.
In the story, the Ancient Mariner kills the albatross, which brings a curse upon him, “ Instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung”. To free himself from this curse, the Ancient Mariner will have to redeem himself by being good to another God’s creature, the Water-Snakes which he had earlier in the poem found disgusting and from whom he could now see their real beauty, “And I blessed them unaware: sure my kind Saint took pity on me, […], and from my neck so free the Albatross fell off, and sank like lead into the sea”. The curse, a symbol of superstition, emphasizes another theme of the poem, that defends that men should respect all of god’s creations, although it should be said that despite numerous religious allusion this is not a religious poem.
It is also brought to the attention of the reader that guilt and justice follows the people who act badly. In the poem guilt and justice are once again represented by unnatural phenomena: “The wan stars danced between […] The moon was at its edge, […], The lightning fell with never a jag, a river steep and wide.”, and by the surreal deathly-pale woman who decide upon the men’s fate.
There are plenty of other sombre images in Coleridge’s poem, and even the description of the weather look bizarre and make the reader very uncomfortable. They all contribute to an atmosphere which makes the poem more dramatic and touching. This will bring out the themes, the lessons that the author wants to introduce to the reader.
