A grander and better world: The many interpretations of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Abstract

Since its initial publication in 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner has been both condemned and celebrated for its fundamental inscrutability. While many critics have dismissed the ballad as "deranged and incoherent" (Stokes 3), others have endeavored to construct interpretive narratives and decipher Coleridge's intent. In response to the Rime's difficulty, many critics have looked to Coleridge's problematic relationship with Christianity as a key to unlocking meaning within the text. However, the imposition of a positive, concrete, and static Christian framework onto Coleridge's text does violence to its essentially elusive significance. In fact, if one universal theme can be gleaned from the Rime, it is the allowance for variable and disparate interpretations of the ballad. Coleridge alludes to this through the dramatization of interpretive disagreement between the three key figures of the text: the Glossator, the Wedding Guest, and the Mariner himself.