The Ancient Mariner

1. The ancient mariner stops the wedding guests and begins telling the story.

The story begins with he and his men encountering icy cliffs, fog, and snow.

The ancient mariner kills the albatross which infuriates the ship crew.

After days of sailing, the sailors became weak and tired.

The sailors die after looking at the ancient mariner’s “cursed eye.”

The ancient mariner longs to pray, but feels unworthy. Then finds himself relieved enough to pray.

The two voices spoke to the mariner. He wakes up finding out it was all a dream.

The mariner finds himself home with the hermit.

The wedding guests leave sadder and wiser.

2. The mariner is the narrator of this story. He pulls aside a few wedding guests on their way into the party and tells them

After the ancient mariner shot the albatross with a cross bow, all the sailors were furious, and contemplated killing him as well. Shortly following the albatross’ death, the ship encountered fog and mist. They grew thirsty and hungry, however, ran out of preservatives.

4. When the mariner is tempted to pay for the crew in part four, he feels unworthy to be associated with mankind. He compares himself to slimy creatures of the earth. Through his appreciation of seeing their spirits lifted from their bodies, he feels relieved, and feels that he could pray again.

5. When the ancient mariner finished telling the wedding guests of his travels, he tells them that he now spends his days feeling burdened with the memories of these stories until he tells someone he feels needs to hear his testimony. He feels relief after telling someone of his voyages amongst terrifying waters.

Thinking Critically

6. In the beginning of part four, the mariner’s cursing eye killed the sailors on his ship. The mariner felt his soul was unworthy to pray for the dead bodies that lie in front of him. Then after seeing their spirits leave their bodies, he begins to pray again because he sees their souls are delivered from their death. The changes of the mariner’s mental state probably didn’t seem very believable for the wedding guests, however, he has already told them so many strange things, the wedding quests could probably safely assume he was crazy. The wedding guests weren’t sure what to believe.

The ancient mariner was chosen of all of them to live because it would mean he would have to live through the pain and suffering he went through. He lives building up his sorrow and pain of his past, then he feels relieved when he tells someone else of his travels. They learn from him, and he feels he can let go and the burden is lifted from his soul. I think it’s only somewhat fair that he should be living with all the sorrow and pain of his mistakes. He shouldn’t have to live with the pain for so long that it haunts him until he tells someone else of his experiences. However, I think he should have this experience to learn from and to be insight for