The Ancient Mariner experiences Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

                In the poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner a crazed man is telling a wedding guest about a time he was at sea and how all sorts of events happened to him that seem to have caused this man to go mad. Samuel Coleridge, the author, seems to know quite a bit of sea-life since he put so much detail into describing what life at sea is like. There aren’t specific facts about the ship he is on or the ocean; he tells what it’s like to be out in the middle of the ocean for such a long time and the way its written allows the reader to better understand what Coleridge is talking about. This entire poem is filled with words and phrases that add to the dark and also beautiful image that this crazed man saw out on the ocean. All of this makes it apparent that Coleridge loves the sea despite the dangers it holds mentally and physically because he put so much thought into the way he describes certain aspects of the sea that can be experienced.

                Also in this poem Coleridge seems to be telling the audience through subliminal messages that killing something innocent and just disgracing any animal in general is a terrible thing to do because it’ll slowly get to your conscience and become an internal curse. He does this with the Albatross. This sea bird comes to the boat he is on and just eats whatever leftovers it can find and basically does no harm to the man. This crazed man, the ancient mariner, then decides to kill the bird for no good reason. The killing of the Albatross I think causes the misfortune of the ancient mariner. Later in the poem after the curse the ancient mariner had goes away the Albatross falls off his neck “like lead into the sea”. I saw this as a figurative bird falling off and going back to where it came. Like a burden is lifted off his shoulders. It’s his demon that made him go mad. This imagery made me see the sky, the boat and the ocean as heaven, purgatory and hell. The sky is heaven because it is clear and easy to see what is truly there and also because all the beautiful things in the poem came from the sky. The boat would be purgatory because this ancient mariner is on it for such a long time with no food or drinkable water. How does he survive for such a long time without these resources? It must be purgatory. Then the ocean is hell because it reflects the good from the sky but deep down the final outcome for all that go under is death. When Coleridge describes the ocean it seems like nothing good comes from it. “Slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea” and “the water, like a witch’s oils” creates an ominous image in the mind of the reader that no good comes from the sea.