Washing Away The Albatross's Blood

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is an important representative of the romantic "lake poets" in the 19^th-century England. He is one of the most influential romantic poets and critics of England. His thoughts and artistic style are embodied in his most famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Ever since the poem was published, many critics have analyzed it from the aspects of religion, ethics, psychology, philosophy, aesthetics, symbolism, archetype, and other perspectives. So far, however, no critic has analyzed it from the aspect of trauma theory. Through the analysis of the poet and the poem, this thesis proposes that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner can be analyzed from the aspect of trauma theory.This thesis argues that The Rime of the Ancient Manner has presented trauma and its recovery from two aspects:First, the poem is about the Mariner's trauma and recovery. During a sailing, the Mariner slays an albatross and this killing brings spectral persecution upon him. Other sea-faring men die one after another, leaving him alone. Only daemons and phantoms accompany him. He is alone on a wide sea. He prays to God but without success. What he can do is just to bear the physical and psychological traumas. He is always trying to wash away the Albatross' blood. When the water snakes appear, he blesses them. The Mariner's act of blessing the water snakes is both the turning-point and climax of the poem. After the blessing, the sea-faring men come to life and they return to their own country. The Mariner's traumas are healed after he repents his crime and shows love to other creatures.Second, Coleridge's own traumas and recovery are embodied in the poem. At the age of nine, Coleridge's father died. He liked to keep to himself in his childhood. He suffered from marital tensions, economic difficulties and poor health almost all his life time. These traumatic experiences made him feel lonely and desperate. The feelings of loneliness and desperateness are embodied in the poem. The poet projected his own traumatic feelings into his poetic character- the Ancient Mariner. By writing the poem, he may have found a way to heal his traumas.This thesis is original mainly in two ways: first, by combining trauma theory and textual analysis of the poem, it deepens the study of the poem in literature; second, it analyzes the poem in the context of the poet's life experiences, reads the poet's experiences as a text, and yields some new avenues of insight into the text as well as its context.