Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, focuses on the crime and punishment of the Mariner. When killing the Albatross, the Mariner offends both God and nature. His two offenses, in nature, are really one: the sin of disharmony. Because he commits this sin of disharmony, he must experience the chaos this brings for himself and now warn people of its dangers. Through offending God through his abuse of agency, and nature through a disregard of, even contempt for, the natural world, the mariner comes to an appreciation for harmony and creates unity through the telling of his story. The Mariner offends God by abusing his agency to reject his blessings. The Albatross stands as a symbol of God’s favor: “the ice did split with a thunder …show more content…
His attitude and language toward the water snakes more fully affirms his disregard and contempt for nature. Referring to the snakes, one of nature’s creations, as ”slimy things" upon a "rotting sea,” “a thousand thousand slimy things,” shows his inability to see beauty in nature around him and further emphasizes his inappropriate ungratefulness (239, 241). The Mariner also views humans as superior to nature. When seeing the snakes, living organisms, in the sea, he refers to the dead men as “beautiful” and the snakes as “slimy,” including the water in which they lie (237, 239). This prideful mindset further exposes that the Mariner does not, and will not, see the intrinsic beauty of nature. His preference for the dead of men rather than for the living strength and activity of nature shows his pride in the superiority of mankind. His offensive attitude, blatant through the killing of the Albatross, brings nature's punishment. The death of the Albatross is the ultimate sign of the Mariners rejection of nature and harmony of beings within the natural