SDecorte - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

1. a) In the first part of the ballad there is a wedding-fest and there are three wedding-guests, who are going to the fest. An ancient mariner stops one of them and starts to tell him his story; initially the gallant tries to leave, but then he looks into the mariner's glittering eyes he cannot choose but hear.

b) I can identify two storylines: the first is the wedding and the meeting between the mariner and the guest; the second is the ancient mariner's story.

2. a) The mariner's traits are the skinny hand, the glittering eyes and the long grey beard. His portrait is not very detailed.

b) The old man doesn't seem a real, true-to-life figure because he is mysterious and he is like a supernatural character.

3. a) The passed through during the journey are the departure from the harbour, the church, the sun shining and the arrival of the Albatross.

b) The natural elements which are personified are the storm, the sun and the ice.

c) Nature is presented in a symbolic way thanks to the personification of it.

4. a) The elements which are outside the natural order of thing are the guest's inability to stop hearing the mariner's story, the noises made by the ice, the fog and the white moonlight and the coming of the Albatross.

b) In my view the contras in between reality and the supernatural is most stinking when the mariner shoots the Albatross also if it was his liberator.