Upon reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in high school, Coleridge's mystical yet fran language suprised me, and though I presently don't have a complete understanding of the epic, I understand it to be one of a young man's journey in isolation, after witnessing death, struggling with his identity and with God's. After the journey, he has significantly aged. The line "I shot the ALBATROSS" (82), dripping in fate, seems to launch the young mariner into a journey to adulthood, then grief, dehydration and supposed divine encounters age him.
I've still found myself wondering why Coleridge set the narration at a wedding, and why the mariner engaged a wedding guest, for whom the wedding may not be a significant moment. Perhaps Coleridge did this for the sake of humor, as the mariner's being out of place does create and odd and somewhat comical situation. However, the maturity change that the wedding guest seems to have undergone is significant enough for there to be a deeper motive. I have always seem the wedding guest as a third party outsider, as the wedding seems to move seamlessly without his being there. Perhaps, the mariner speaks to him to caution him and educate him on the effects of loneliness.
The mariner could also be speaking to him because he is too burdened by this memory not to.
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