Stories are often told not only just for entertainment, but also for lessons learned. Sometimes the lessons to be learned are often unclear. While other stories have a clear image of the lesson. However, when reading or hearing the story, these lessons are rather just heard than actually listened to. In this story, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Coleridge, there are three messages that illustrate lessons to be learned.
One message in Coleridge’s story is taking responsibility for one’s own actions. All actions have consequences whether these are good or bad. In this story in particular, there was a major consequence for the actions that the Mariner took. He took the challenge of shooting the Albatross out of the sky. Now, know that the large bird was a symbol of good luck to the men aboard the ship. These men were very superstitious and when the Mariner shot the innocent bird from the sky, they believed that bad luck was to come. The consequence to the Mariner’s action was not only “Instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung (Lines 141-142)”, but also to live to tell the tale of the tole his action of shooting the bird from the sky, which was the death of all his shipmates.
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The Mariner shot the bird from the sky through his mindless actions. He really had no reason to shoot the bird, instead he did it out of a joke. Once again this action had quite the consequence. No good thing comes from disrespect of God’s creations. “He prayeth best, who loveth best all things both great and small; for the dear God who loveth us, he made and loveth all (Lines