Hospitality

       Peter Melville explains what he thinks is another important theme in this poem, in his article ‘Coleridge's The Rime of The Ancient Mariner’. Melville knows the main theme in the poem, 'The Rime of The Ancient Mariner', is about God and faith. He also believes a theme in the poem that should not be overlooked is hospitality. Melville writes “where do the mariner’s obligations lie in the end, with the familiar or with the strange and unknown?” in the poem the mariner does a complete circle. In the beginning of his journey the mariner is more comfortable with what he is familiar with, but what does he do after the storm when the ship is stranded in an unknown place and he doesn’t know what to do in a situation like the one he is in? The article states: “a great sea bird, called an albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality,” but only by the crew. The mariner was in a moment of crisis, since it was his crew, his ship, and his life that dangled in danger. In his moment of panic “He inhospility killith the pious bird of good omen.”  To try and answer the question of the mariner’s obligations now would be impossible, because he killed what he was familiar with and still fears what he does not know. The poem goes on and stranger things are in store for the mariner, and he is thrown into more situations that are out of the ordinary in extreme ways.  Near the end of the poem, while the mariner is talking with the hermit, the hermit explains the way he is by saying “Strange, by my faith!” With everything the mariner has been through he finally realizes where his obligations lie. That line was a realization point for the mariner and a turning point in where his obligations lie. Everything began with an albatross, and the wedding guest the mariner stopped to tell his tale too must slay or save his own bird. “The wedding guest must likewise choose between the strange and the familiar.” The wedding guest has to decide whether to go to the wedding, where his attendance is expected. Or listen to the mariner, who seems desperate for a listener. The wedding guest is scared by what the mariner says and is tempted to flee from the strange old man. At the end of the mariner’s tale the guest says he is a “Sadder and wiser man”.  So the mariner has made a complete circle, and so has the wedding guest. They both must spread the tale but where do the mariner’s obligations lie? Melville refers to the wedding guest’s Eden has been turned to a prison, and the mariner’s Eden is the same, but in return now they both believe in the strange, and the mariner finds it is his new home. They both must pass the story on and on, “And he rose the morrow morn.”

       The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the definition of rime is argument. The argument is inside of the mariner, I agree with Melville. A lesson the mariner must learn is faith, but also is good hospitality. The limits in the mariners hospitality are that he only welcomes what is familiar opposed to what is strange or unknown.  The albatross is the one familiar sight the mariner and his crew can see while stuck in an unknown place, and the crew gives the great bird a good “Christian” welcome, while the mariner kills the bird. Which in turn causes him to turn his back on all hospitality, whether it be towards what he knows or what he does not. I believe the same as the author of the article. The question asked before about where do the mariner’s obligations lie, is answered when the mariner is with the hermit. The mariner is afraid of the strange, but when he regains his faith and his ability to pray, he learns that as a good Christian you are to learn to love every creature on this earth. The mariner realizes that if strange is where his faith leads him, then he must be hospital to everything he meets along the way. He passes on his new knowledge to the wedding guest who learns from the mariner. “He was a sadder and wiser man, and he rose the morrow morn.” The wedding guest is prepared to live the teachings he learned from the mariner. He chose to welcome his own albatross.

By Kerri Peetz