Pain In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

Pain is apart of life, there is no way around it. Pain can be caused physically and psychologically. In the poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, there is an Albatross that greets the crew, the Mariner unexpectedly kills the great seabird. His actions cause unfortunate events to everyone on board the ship, especially the Mariner. The Mariner experiences external and internal conflicts during his voyage. Externally, the Mariner is carrying the dead bird on his shoulders, parched from lack of water, and suffers a self-inflicted injury to his arm. Internally, he has the psychological pain of killing the Albatross, which eventually leads to the death of his crew, and seeing mirages. His external and internal pain torture each other throughout

The Mariner tests his luck by killing the Albatross and in doing so puts himself along with his crew in jeopardy. They become lost at sea using all their resources to survive. The crew spites the Mariner and decide to hang the dead bird around his neck. “Instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung” (lines 141-142). The crew hangs the Albatross around his neck to remind the Mariner of his “sin” of killing the seabird. Now he has the weight of the world, the bird, and the crew on his shoulders. Not only is the bird weighing him down it is also choking him. In a way this is nature’s way of revenge towards the Mariner. Another example of his physical torture is when the Mariner thinks he sees a ship and tries to speak but his throat is so parched he bites his arm to use the blood as a substitute for water. “I bit my arm, I sucked the blood, and cried, a sail! A sail!” (line 160-161). The Mariner decides to cause himself harm to save himself. This is an example of the psychological pain pleading into the physical so it can feed into these mirages. This is also nature playing tricks on the Mariner for his cruel punishment toward the Albatross. Pain is playing and testing the Mariner. Pushing him to the limit to see how far he can be pushed. The Mariner endures a lot of self-inflicted and outside pain because of executing the

The Mariner is put to the test once he starts to run out of resources and his crew starts to die. Their throats are parched and the sun is pounding down on them. Seeing himself and his crew in this deteriorating state is emotionally frustrating. Especially seeing and hearing his crew die and being the lone survivor. “Four times fifty living men, … with heavy thump, a lifeless lump, they dropped one by one” (lines 216-219). Psychologically, it is mentally killing the Mariner. He is listening to his crew’s dead bodies hitting the deck, one by one by one. The Mariner is a victim of survivor guilt. His crew died because of his unnecessary action toward the Albatross. Being the lone survivor on the ship is his prison. He is constantly reminded of his actions toward the seabird and his crew. This psychological pain will always be with the Mariner. The Mariner will never forget his time aboard the ship. He will always be reminded of his actions costing his men’s lives. The Mariner will have the physical scar from the bite on his arm. He will always feel the weight of the Albatross on his shoulders. He will have an emotional scar from killing the seabird which led to the death of his men. He will never get the sound of the bodies hitting the deck, one by one by one. The Mariner will always feel the pain that nature made him feel. The Mariner endured and survived his physical and psychological