The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The mariner as text The ballad-measure: a fictitious speaker beings his rime by story telling that the poem’s constitution is give from the mariner’s “discourse. ” v The discourse between mariner and wedding guest: a set of codes of enigma rising with the proceeding storyline: “who is the mariner? ” “what is the story about? ” v Whenever the mariner repeats his story, the poem is dealing with reconstitution of the mariner’s identity within the discourse v that produce meanings.

The Vision of Sea The first imprisonment: a sea of ice The crew at the first time encounter the malice of nature operating as a prison. The mariner: on less than a member of human community v The imprisonment is temporal; Albatross frees the ship. v The second imprisonment: a silent sea Visionary elements: physical psychological imprisonment “a painted ship in the painted sea” v The splitting of the mariner: the poem now is dealing with the fate of a individual human being. Albatross hanging on the mariner’s neck v

The Vision of Sea: Outcast Hero Shooting Albatross: the gratuitous act This motiveless act heightens a sense of identity: “motive has no concern; the person who performs it matters” the mariner apart from his crew v The motiveless malevolence positions mariner in the genealogy of literary figures: Shakespeare’s Iago, Milton’s Satan. . . a wanderer, a man with chain, a rule breaker v In the pure but emptied act, the mariner is deprived of his “guilt, ” the pure crime of a pure murderer. “The mariner is a killer” “The mariner is a outcast” v

The Vision of Sea: Crucifixion v The mariner: a victim as Albatross The prison works in concert with Albatross whose blood reddened the sea. “The bloody sun” “water…still and awful red” The mariner “bit my arm, I sucked the blood” v The mariner: embodiment of crucifixion Albatross on the mariner’s neck as Jesus on the cross Albatross: a holy bird, an “Christian Soul” Mariner: a container, a presence of crucifixion

The Vision of Ship Transfiguration of a Spectre-Bark Mariner’s ship: a second-scale prison “the painted ship in the painted sea” v The Spectre-bark: a dungeon with fire “. . . was flecked with bars” “a dungeon-grate he peered” mariner’s ship coincides the spectre-bark v Transfiguration of Life-in-Death v Mariner: Life-in-Death mariner turns to be Life-in-Death, a emptied self human body (Life-in-Death) as prison-measure

Reconstitution of the Mariner v The Steps in the Two visions The silent sea: mariner outcast container The spectre-bark: prisoner repressed imprisoned body v The mariner as text The mariner “does not act but is continually acted upon. ” The mariner as no-self, functional means to connect acts and things in the fluid dissolve of imagination