Albatross In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

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In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an old sailor tells this bizarre story of an ill-fated voyage to a wedding party. As the sailor and his crew embark on the journey, it seems as if everything is smooth sailing. Suddenly an albatross appears. Throughout history, the albatross has been a metaphor for many things; in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the albatross was at first a symbol of good luck and good fortune. According to Dennis Dean, the sailors made the albatross their “pet”. It can be seen as if the albatross was treated as a person, “as if it had been a Christian soul, we hail 'd it in God 's name.”(ll.65). Then impulsively the ancient mariner kills the innocent albatross with a crossbow. The bird was a symbol of good fortune for