The purpose of this seminar paper is to establish the relationship between man and the nature in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of The Ancient Mariner. The relationship changes during the story. Even for the first sight there seems to be a great deal of religious and supernatural imagery. As if the nature went mad about the Mariner and wants to penance him. Firstly, I would like to focus on the state of the relationship between the Mariner, his shipmates and nature before the sin that was committed against nature by shooting a bird and how the state changed after the crime. The major theme of this paper would be the punishment of the Mariner by the revenge of nature. At the end of the paper I would like to consider the "man-nature " relationship according to the perception that the Bible presents. .
Whole poem is about the Mariner telling an adventurous story to one of the wedding guests on the wedding they are both attending. We know that it is still the same wedding guest through the whole poem. That's why Coleridge, when referring to him, uses capital letters. The Mariner begins his story, thus his journey, with brief description of the situation. He perceives nature with his senses. For him, it is only something that affects the way his ship sails. "The ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the Line. " This part of the poem is full of imagery of the sun and ice - both of which can be interpreted as symbols of the rational intellect. The sun because of its light which brings out differences rather than unifying and blending, ice because of its coldness and its rigid and sharp shape. Nature is thus presented as cold and forbidding, through the Mariner's eyes. The man and nature are apart. .
The Sun came up upon the left, .
Out of the sea came he; .
And shone bright, and on the right .
Went down into the sea. .
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And now there came both mist and snow, .
