A Cyclical Journey Of Man-nature Relationship

As one of the greatest Romantic figures in British literary history, S.T. Coleridge made his fame mainly on a small handful of poems like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, among which only the first is finished and also the most disputable in critical field.The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a long narrative poem. It tells a story of an old mariner who meets gallants on their way to a marriage feast and stops one to recount his story. He tells that on a sailing journey he commits a motiveless crime by killing a friendly albatross. As a consequence, he loses his all shipmates and lives alone, suffering the severe punishment from nature. Only after he blesses the God's creatures in his heart does the spell on him break, but ever afterward he must do further penance by teaching others the lesson he has learned: to love and revere all tings that God has made and loves. What the poem criticizes is human's overbearing and atrocity. Killing the innocent bird symbolizes the final alienation of man and nature.This thesis intends to give an ecocritical study of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner through reading the text from the perspective of ecocriticism, probing Coleridge's ecological awareness and ecological concern reflected in the poem to emphasize the realistic significance of his ecological ideas on modern ecological issues.The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter one makes a brief introduction to the author and his masterpiece The Rime of Ancient Mariner as well as its critical reception, stating the theoretical basis and structure of the thesis.Chapter two explores the description of anthropocentric acts and its consequences presented in the poem, thus uncovering Coleridge's philosophy of anti-anthropocentrism. In his view, it is man's dominance over nature that leads to the alienation of man and nature. Therefore mankind should rethink their position in the universe and reestablish the relation between man and nature.Chapter three is to reveal Coleridge's view of ecological oneness implied in the poem. For Coleridge, as a part of parcel of nature, man and other non-human life forms are equal in the universe. So humans must respect for and return to nature, so that the whole ecological system can get a more healthy and harmonious development.Chapter four is to trace the sources of Coleridge's ecological thoughts to the British Romantic times the author lived in, the influence of German philosophy, and his life experiences.Chapter five makes a conclusion of the whole thesis. Coleridge's ecological awareness not only influence the nature writing of his fellow poet, but exerts realistic significance on modern society, helping awake people's ecological awareness and promote a more ecological lifestyle that harmonizes with the environment.