The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
ASSIGNMENT on
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
as full of the Supernatural elements.
By Sopnil Yeakub (Sopnil Yeakub
The supernatural elements actually appear with the albatross, which has arrived in order to help guide the Mariner's ship through a fog bank. When the Ancient Mariner kills the albatross, he has not only violated concepts of gratitude and hospitality, he has, on a whim, killed a living being that has come to same him and his ship. I believe we are meant to see the albatross, in part, in a Christian context--like Christ, who came to earth to save us, the albatross arrives to save the mariners and their ship, and the reward for this generosity is his execution.
Nature itself becomes relentlessly supernatural after the killing of the albatross: the wind stops, temperatures climb, drinking water run
s out. These are not merely problems for a ship at sea; they are all life-threatening. The crew, sensing its own complicity in the Mariner's action, decide to hang the albatross around his neck, an allusion to the concept of the Judeo-Christian scapegoat, who wears an amulet representing the sins of the people and is sent into the desert to die for everyone's sins.
As we know, several horrific supernatural elements seal the fate of the ship and crew--slimy snakes from the bottom of the ocean come to the ship; a ghost-ship, with the figures of Death and Death-in-Life, arrives and the entire crew dies (Death) but the Mariner remains alive (Death-in-Life).
The Mariner's salvation comes when he, unconsciously and full of pity, blesses the slimy sea snakes, and the albatross falls from his neck, an indication that Nature and/or God has forgiven his original sin of killing the albatross. His penance, however, is not complete, for he has to keep telling his story, first to the hermit on the pilot boat and then to the Wedding Guest. It's only after the repeated telling of this awful tale that the Ancient Mariner achieves some peace. Unfortunately, the Wedding Guest is negatively affected by the tale, avoids the wedding, and wakes up the next day "a sadder and wiser man."
The supernatural elements, then, themselves contain elements of Nature's wrath at wanton cruelty, as well as implicitly Christian elements, that together create the retribution the Mariner suffers and the salvation he is offered at the end.
The greatness of S. T. Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner lies chiefly in the technique by which the supernatural has been made believable and convincing. There are a number of impossible, incredible, and fantastic situations in the poem. The fascinating power in Mariner’s gaze, the sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship, the spectre- woman and her mate, the coming back of life to the dead crew, the sudden sinking of the ship, the polar spirits talking to each other- all these and other supernatural incidents are scattered in the poem. With these supernatural elements the poet has artistically interwoven convincing pictures of Nature like the sun shining brightly at the outset, the mist and snow surrounding the ship, the freezing cold of the Artic region, slimy creatures creeping upon the sea, the moon going up the sky with a star or two beside it, the water snakes moving in the water in a variety of colors. The natural and supernatural, the real and fantastic, the possible ad the impossible have been so skillfully and artistically mingled that the whole strikesus as quite convincing and credible.
This literary ballad clearly contains many fantastical elements that are obviously supernatural. Important to note is the way that Coleridge in this poem creates a spirit that embodies Nature itself, called the Polar Spirit, that pursues the ship and rains down suffering and punishment on the vessel because of the thoughtless act of the Mariner in killing the albatross. However, arguably these supernatural elements are used as a way of presenting the torments that guilt can inflict on the human soul and the terrible expiation necessary for those who sin against nature in such a shocking fashion.
Of course, the pain and guilt experienced by the Mariner are a product of the pain and guilt of Coleridge himself, as suffered through his opium addiction, and so we are left to wonder if the fantastical elements that feature so strongly in this poem are dreamt up out of the opium-fevered imagination of its author. Either way, the supernatural elements show the force of The Polar Spirit, representing Nature, and the danger of taking Nature for granted.
The setting of the poem is natural, known to all. With a view to giving his story an air of plausibility, Coleridge gives accurate description of his nature. In the AM every phase of landscape, seascape and cloudscape is touched upon. The bright sun, the “Kirk” or church, the hill, the lighthouse, the cheerful onlookers at the harbor, the wedding guest, the marriage ceremony, the storm blast in the sea, the mist and snow of the Arctic region and many other natural elements are there in the setting of the story. All these natural phenomena have been made very convincing.
In this natural setting are set the supernatural incidents. A terrible storm hit and forced the ship southwards. The “storm blast” was “tyrannous and strong’ and struck the ship with”overtaking wings”. Then the sailors reached a calm patch of sea that was “wondrous cold” full of snow and glistering green icebergs” as tall as the ship’s mast.
And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold. The sailors were the only living things in this frightening, enclosed world where the ice made terrible groaning sounds that echoed all around.
The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a sound!
In his Ancient Mariner, Coleridge often blends the real and unreal in order to create a supernatural world. Here we see the story at first is given a known, familiar setting but soon it passes into an unreal world. The reader is not disturbed by this smooth transition from the real to the unreal world but indulges himself in the “willing suspension of disbelief”.
However, finally an albatross emerged from the mist, and the sailors received it as a sign of good luck, as though it were a “Christian soul” sent by God to save them. No sooner than the sailors fed the albatross did the ice break apart, allowing the captain to steer out of the freezing world. The wind picked up again and continued for nine days. All the while the bird followed the ship, ate the food the sailors gave it and played with them. But at this favorable moment the mariner did a hellish thing. He shot the bird with his cross bow.
From the moment the mariner kills the bird retribution comes in the form of natural phenomena. The wind dies, the sun intensifies and it will not rain. The ocean becomes “revolting”, “rotting” and “thrashing” with “slimy” creatures and sizzling with strange fires.
Coleridge depicts tactfully how nature punishes supernaturally for killing its innocent member. Before the sun was “bright” but now it has become
“the bloody sun.” in a “hot and copper sky”.
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
The nature continues punishing the mariners. The wind refuses to blow, and the sun’s relentless heat chars the men.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breathe nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean
This hot sun makes the mariners thirsty but they have no drinkable water.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The mariner lives like Tantalus. They need water badly and it is all around them but it is entirely undrinkable. The throats became “unslaked” and “lips baked” under the hot sun.
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
The shipmates, in their sore distress, throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner and in sign they hang the dead sea-bird round his neck.
‘Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.’
The time is weary and long. They have nothing to do but suffer only.
A weary time ! a weary time !
How glazed each weary eye,
When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.
A mysterious ship arrives. When the ship is sighted in the distance, the sailors feel happy to think that the will now get water to quench their burning thirst.
‘I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail ! a sail !’
But in a few moments they discover the reality of the ship. The crew
consists of Death and Life- in- death.
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.
Coleridge beautifully depicts the mental suffering of the Mariner under this condition:-
“Fear at my heart, as at a cup
My life blood seemed to sip.”
The suffering becomes even more painful when all his fellow men dropped down one by one. And the soul of each passes by him with the sound like that of his arrow that killed the Albatross.
“They dropped down one by one.”
For seven days and nights the mariner remained alone on the ship.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea !
The dead sailors, who miraculously did not rot, continued to curse him with their open eyes which intensified his inner guilt.
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.
Coleridge beautifully depicts the mental suffering of the Mariner under this condition:-
“Fear at my heart, as at a cup
My life blood seemed to sip.”
The suffering becomes even more painful when all his fellow men dropped down one by one. And the soul of each passes by him with the sound like that of his arrow that killed the Albatross.
“They dropped down one by one.”
For seven days and nights the mariner remained alone on the ship.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea !
The dead sailors, who miraculously did not rot, continued to curse him with their open eyes which intensified his inner guilt.
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
His surroundings- the ship, the ocean, and the creatures within it are “rotting’ in the heat and sun, but he is the one who is rotten on the inside.
Coleridge beautifully portrays how he suffer from acute mental distress when he tried to pray but could not do so, how he felt the horror of the curse in the dead men’s eyes, how the sky and the sea lay like a heavy load on his weary eyes, and how finally he felt relief. This is exactly what any man would suffer under similar circumstances. By portraying mariner’s mental states, Coleridge produces the realistic effect.
During his lonely days he spent his times by watching the little creatures on the ice. The mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes, his heart fills with love for them and he can bless them “unaware”
“A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware”
Only when the mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, he is granted the ability to pray. The moment he begins to view the natural world benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched. As a sign, the albatross- the burden of sin falls from his neck.
‘The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.’
It finally rains and his thrust is quenched.
‘My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank”
The ship suddenly began to move towards the native land of the old sailor. Ultimately the ship reached near the harbor. It sank suddenly and the old sailor was rescued from the disaster.
Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
During his lonely days he spent his times by watching the little creatures on the ice. The mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes, his heart fills with love for them and he can bless them “unaware” Only when the mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, he is granted the ability to pray. The moment he begins to view the natural world benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched. As a sign, the albatross- the burden of sin falls from his neck. It finally rains and his thrust is quenched. The ship suddenly began to move towards the native land of the old sailor. Ultimately the ship reached near the harbor. It sank suddenly and the old sailor was rescued from the disaster. Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
During his lonely days he spent his times by watching the little creatures on the ice. The mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes, his heart fills with love for them and he can bless them “unaware” Only when the mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, he is granted the ability to pray. The moment he begins to view the natural world benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched. As a sign, the albatross- the burden of sin falls from his neck. It finally rains and his thrust is quenched. The ship suddenly began to move towards the native land of the old sailor. Ultimately the ship reached near the harbor. It sank suddenly and the old sailor was rescued from the disaster. Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
On the above discussion we can say that there are many kinds of supernatural elements are found here.
The Story of Macbeth
THE STORY OF MACBETH
In medieval Scotland, Macbeth, a general in King Duncan's army, and his fellow soldier, Banquo, are returning from a successful battle. On a barren heath, three witches appear and greet Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis," "Thane of Cawdor" and "King hereafter." They also prophesy that the future heirs of the throne will be descended not from Macbeth, but from Banquo. The witches disappear, and a messenger from the King arrives announcing that Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor, thus fulfilling the first part of the prophecy. King Duncan declares that he is nominating his son, Malcolm, as heir, and announces that he will spend the night at the Macbeths' castle.
Alone, Lady Macbeth reads her husband's letter describing the witches' revelations. She fears that Macbeth lacks the courage to commit murder and seize the crown. Returning home, Macbeth expresses reservations about murdering the King, but Lady Macbeth convinces him that the deed must be done. That night, Macbeth stabs the sleeping Duncan, and two guards are framed for the crime.
The next morning, Macduff, a nobleman, discovers the body of the King. The King's son, Malcolm, flees to England, and the lords of the kingdom vow to avenge the King's murder. Macbeth is appointed King, but with the witches' prophecy in mind, he arranges for the murders of Banquo and his son, Fleance. Although Banquo is killed, the hired assassin does not succeed in killing Fleance.
At a royal banquet, Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost sitting in his chair, disrupting the ceremonies despite Lady Macbeth's efforts to control the situation. He returns to the witches, who share new visions with him: to beware Macduff, that he can never be killed by "one of woman born" and to never fear until he sees Birnham Wood begin to move. These twisted predictions lead Macbeth to think that he is safe from harm, although the witches still show that Banquo's descendants will ascend the throne.
When Macbeth learns that Macduff has fled the country to join with Malcolm, he orders Macduff's wife and children to be put to death. Haunted by the sins she has committed, Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking. Malcolm and Macduff advance an army to challenge Macbeth, cutting down the branches of Birnham Wood to disguise their number. Macbeth is strengthening his own army, when news reaches him that Lady Macbeth has died. Macbeth goes into battle. Face to face, Macduff reveals that he was "from his mother's womb, untimely ripped," and defeats Macbeth. Malcolm becomes King of Scotland.
THE HISTORY OF MACBETH
Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare between 1603 and 1607. One of the greatest tragedies ever written, the play was based on the true story of Mac Bethad mac Findlaich, King of the Scots in the 11th century.
It is known that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth partially as a celebration of King James, who had just ascended the throne in 1603. King James had a great fascination with witches, and the witches of Macbeth were likely inspired by his interest. In addition, much of the plot of Macbeth is surmised to have been inspired by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when a group of English Catholics attempted to assassinate King James of England, as well as King James VI of Scotland.
Shakespeare's most popular play, Macbeth is performed more often than any of his other works. Its first public performance was in 1611 at the Globe Theatre in London. The first actor to play the role was the esteemed Richard Burbage.
There have been 48 productions of Macbeth on Broadway over the years. In fact, Alan Cumming is the first Scotsman to perform "The Scottish Play" on Broadway in more than a century.
Legend has it that prior to the premiere of Macbeth, the boy playing Lady Macbeth suddenly died, and Shakespeare himself stepped into the role. This is one of several myths that are credited with the origin of the superstitions surrounding the play. In 1849, a fight broke out between two famous Shakespearean actors, Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, who were both to star in respective productions of Macbeth in Manhattan. This fight escalated into the historic Astor Place Riots, which left 25 people dead and 120 injured. There are hundreds of reported incidents of "the curse of Macbeth" including several where a real dagger has been mistaken for a prop dagger, resulting in the death of an actor.
The curse of Macbeth is well-known throughout the world. For centuries, thespians have avoided saying the title of the play out loud in a theatre, preferring to use "The Scottish Play."
It has become tradition, when the name "Macbeth" is spoken in a theatre, for the guilty party to spin around three times, spit over their left shoulder, and yell an obscenity. There are several ritualistic ways to guard against the curse of Macbeth, but none have been definitively proven to ward off the curse.
Summary
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”
Commentary
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first “rhyme”—the speaker’s first attempt to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”Summary
This sonnet compares the speaker’s lover to a number of other beauties—and never in the lover’s favor. Her eyes are “nothing like the sun,” her lips are less red than coral; compared to white snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs are like black wires on her head. In the second quatrain, the speaker says he has seen roses separated by color (“damasked”) into red and white, but he sees no such roses in his mistress’s cheeks; and he says the breath that “reeks” from his mistress is less delightful than perfume. In the third quatrain, he admits that, though he loves her voice, music “hath a far more pleasing sound,” and that, though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress—unlike goddesses—walks on the ground. In the couplet, however, the speaker declares that, “by heav’n,” he thinks his love as rare and valuable “As any she belied with false compare”—that is, any love in which false comparisons were invoked to describe the loved one’s beauty.
Commentary
This sonnet, one of Shakespeare’s most famous, plays an elaborate joke on the conventions of love poetry common to Shakespeare’s day, and it is so well-conceived that the joke remains funny today. Most sonnet sequences in Elizabethan England were modeled after that of Petrarch. Petrarch’s famous sonnet sequence was written as a series of love poems to an idealized and idolized mistress named Laura. In the sonnets, Petrarch praises her beauty, her worth, and her perfection using an extraordinary variety of metaphors based largely on natural beauties. In Shakespeare’s day, these metaphors had already become cliche (as, indeed, they still are today), but they were still the accepted technique for writing love poetry. The result was that poems tended to make highly idealizing comparisons between nature and the poets’ lover that were, if taken literally, completely ridiculous. My mistress’ eyes are like the sun; her lips are red as coral; her cheeks are like roses, her breasts are white as snow, her voice is like music, she is a goddess.
In many ways, Shakespeare’s sonnets subvert and reverse the conventions of the Petrarchan love sequence: the idealizing love poems, for instance, are written not to a perfect woman but to an admittedly imperfect man, and the love poems to the dark lady are anything but idealizing (“My love is as a fever, longing still / For that which longer nurseth the disease” is hardly a Petrarchan conceit.) Sonnet 130 mocks the typical Petrarchan metaphors by presenting a speaker who seems to take them at face value, and somewhat bemusedly, decides to tell the truth. Your mistress’ eyes are like the sun? That’s strange—my mistress’ eyes aren’t at all like the sun. Your mistress’ breath smells like perfume? My mistress’ breath reeks compared to perfume. In the couplet, then, the speaker shows his full intent, which is to insist that love does not need these conceits in order to be real; and women do not need to look like flowers or the sun in order to be beautiful.
The rhetorical structure of Sonnet 130 is important to its effect. In the first quatrain, the speaker spends one line on each comparison between his mistress and something else (the sun, coral, snow, and wires—the one positive thing in the whole poem some part of his mistress is like. In the second and third quatrains, he expands the descriptions to occupy two lines each, so that roses/cheeks, perfume/breath, music/voice, and goddess/mistress each receive a pair of unrhymed lines. This creates the effect of an expanding and developing argument, and neatly prevents the poem—which does, after all, rely on a single kind of joke for its first twelve lines—from becoming stagnant.
Shakespeare - Analysis of Sonnet 2 |
In Sonnet 2, Shakespeare stresses to his lover that beauty will not last, and that it is selfish and foolish for anyone not to prepare for the loss of beauty and youth by having a child to carry on unsurpassed beauty. The sonnet can be cynically seen as Shakespeare's attempt to get his lover to sleep with him rather than as a lesson in living life.
In the first quatrain Shakespeare says that later on, your youth will be worthless. The greatness of your youth, admired by everyone now, will be, will be as worthless as a "tatter'd weed of small worth held". Shakespeare says this worthlessness will be when forty years of age wrinkles your brow and when there are, "deep trenches in thy beauty's field". The personification is seen in the metaphor: "deep trenches in thy beauty's field" which can be seen as wrinkles in a beautiful face. This gives readers a picture of the old age that has yet to come for some. In the second quatrain, when what has yet to come for some has came, and when you are asked, where is your beauty now? And when you're asked, "where are all the treasures of thy lusty days?" You must reply that These "treasures of thy lusty days" or offspring from your youth are lost in "thine own deep sunken eyes" states the poet. In this place of old age where your youth is, is also greed and self-obsession which is written as "all-eating shame and thriftless praise" by Shakespeare. The metaphor of "all-eating shame" is effective in how readers sense a feeling of negativity from the words of Shakespeare's hand. In the third quatrain, where Shakespeare's hand rhymes of regret, the ideal answer is shown. The poet states, "This fair child of mine shall sum my account and make my old excuse, proving his beauty by succession thine!" This was the answer wished to be used but could not be. Shakespeare says, "How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use" which regrets, if only your beauty could have been put to a greater use. The couplet then describes what it would be like to have this baby. Shakespeare poetically states that this baby would be "new made when thou art old" This means that the baby would be young while you are old. The final line tells how you would see your own blood flow warm through the baby while you are cold. "And see thy warm blood when thou feel'st it cold." |
Summary of The Garden Party
Summary of The Garden Party
"The Garden Party" opens with frantic preparations being made. The cloudless summer day is perfect for the garden party at the home of Sheridan family. Before breakfast ends, four workmen arrive to set up the marquee. Because Meg has just washed her hair and Jose is still in her petticoat, Mrs. Sheridan assigns the task of supervising the men to Laura. Taking a piece of buttered bread with her, Laura goes outside to begin her task.
The protagonist, Laura, is an idealistic and sensitive young girl. She is surrounded by her more conventional family: her sister, Jose, who, as the narrator tells us, "loved giving orders to servants"; her mother, Mrs. Sheridan, a shallow old woman whose world consists of having enough canna lilies; her father, a businessman; and her brother, Laurie, to whom she feels most similar in feeling and ideals.
When she suggests that the men–all smiling and quite friendly–set up the marquee on the lily lawn, a fat man asks her. "You want to put it somewhere where it'll give you a bang slap in the eye." Laura wonders whether it is respectful of a laborer to speak to a girl of her upbringing in the simple language of the common people.
Another man suggests placing the marquee against the karaka trees. Laura dislikes the idea of hiding the broad leaves and yellow fruit of the karakas, but the workmen are already heading toward them with the staves and rolls of canvas. She is impressed that one workman stops to smell purple. She considers that she would get along well with these simple workmen and wouldn’t let class distinctions get in the way.
After sometimes later a voice from the house calls Laura to the phone, so she goes back across the lawn, up the steps, across the veranda, and into the hallway. There she found her father and brother Laurie who are about to leave for work. Laurie asks her to press a coat for him before the party. On the phone is her friend Kitty Maitland. They chat and agree to have lunch together. After hanging up, Laura delights in the busy sounds of the house.
A man then informs everyone that a young cart driver was killed that morning when his horse reared on Hawke Street. His last name was Scott, and he had lived in a cottage just down the road from the Sheridans in a settlement of commoners. He left a wife and five children.
Hearing this Laura feels pity to the man and she thinks the atmosphere is negotiated. Struck by the inappropriateness of throwing a garden party when a neighbor has been killed, Laura immediately suggests that they cancel the party. The rest of the story is structured around Laura's understanding of her concern for the dead laborer and her family's reactions to his demise. Laura attempts to convince Jose of the necessity of canceling the party. Jose's response is indicative of the family's overall view of the impoverished laborers. She chastises Laura for her desire to cancel the party, saying, ‘‘you won't bring a drunken workman back to life by being sentimental.’’
But her mother and all of the members of her family disagree with her. She says, “It’s not very sympathetic to spoil everybody’s enjoyment as you’re doing now,” So, Laura goes to her room. But when she glimpses “this charming girl in the mirror, in her black hat trimmed with gold daisies, and a long black velvet ribbon,” she wonders whether her mother is right. Yes, she decides, her mother is right.
...After lunch the band members arrive, all wearing green coats. When Laurie arrives and heads toward his room to dress, Laura thinks again about the accident and calls to him when he is halfway upstairs to tell him about it. He turns and looks at his sister. .A short while later; the guests begin arriving, the band starts playing, and people shake hands and kiss cheeks. Everyone who greets Laura tells her how striking she looks and how becoming her hat is.
The hired waiters serve tea and passion-fruit ices, the band plays on, and “the perfect afternoon slowly ripened, slowly faded, slowly its petals closed.” The party had gone perfectly. Everyone gathers in the marquee. While eating a sandwich, Mr. Sheridan talks about the “beastly accident,” saying that the victim “leaves a wife and half a dozen kiddies.” Seeing all the leftover food–sandwiches, cream puffs, cakes–Mrs. Sheridan suggests Laura to send it down to the family.
.......Laura walks down the road. As she enters the run-down neighborhood, children play in doorways, men lean on fences, and women in shawls hurry hither and thither. She wishes she hadn’t come. At one house, “a dark knot of people” were standing outside. Laura, nervous, asks a woman whether it is Mrs. Scott’s house. Then a woman invites her into the house. Laura just wants to leave the basket, but the woman leads her into a small kitchen. Laura observes that there lay a young man, fast asleep - sleeping so soundly, so deeply, that he was far, far away from them both. He was dreaming. Never wake him up again. His head was sunk in the pillow, his eyes were closed; they were blind under the closed eyelids. He was far from all the things. She leaves immediately. On the way, home Laurie comes toward her and says their mother was beginning to worry. But Laura, though crying, says everything went well and begins asking a question that she can’t finish: “Isn’t life– isn’t life?” Her brother understands, saying, “Isn’t it, darling?”
Laura
This is Laura’s story. Although there are some general, impersonal passages and several scenes without her, we see the world through Laura’s eyes. We observe others how she sees them, especially their response to her own behaviour.
Laura is still a child. She doesn’t fully understand what is happening; her reaction to the workman’s death is a mixture of instinct, upbringing and egotism. She sees the workman’s death in an emotional way, torn between her own instinctive feelings and the powerful dominance of her mother and older sisters. She finally reaches her own personal understanding of life, which is left ambiguous in the final sentence. She does not reject the social life of the upper-class but comes to her own serious kind of maturity.
Being still a child, and not fully aware of the power of class distinctions and her own place within the social structure, Laura acts as a bridge between the upper and lower classes. She decides ‘it’s all the fault… of these absurd class distinctions’. Unlike Mrs Sheridan, she sees the workmen as individual people, indeed, as attractive ones.
When the carter dies, again, Laura sees him as another human, with the frivolity of their party exposed.
Jose Sheridan
Jose is Laura's class-conscious older sister. She takes a dim view of Laura's wish to cancel the garden party when she tells Laura that she "won't bring a drunken workman back to life by being sentimental."Laura Sheridan
Laura Sheridan is an idealistic and impressionable young person who struggles with her own and her family's perceptions of class difference. Learning that a working-class neighbor was accidentally killed, Laura wants to cancel the garden party planned for that afternoon. The narrative centers on Laura's vacillation between feelings of empathy for the dead laborer and her vanity and class elitism. She unsuccessfully tries to convince her mother to cancel the party...Narrator
If you remember one thing about this narrator and one thing only, let it be this: he carries a torch. Big time. We're talking Joey-for-Dawson (in the early days, at least), Ross-for-Rachel, Jim-for-Pam. This crush is serious business. He's not into his friend's older sister because she's nice and pretty. He notices all the details, like her hair is a "soft rope […] tossed from side to side" (Araby.3).When it comes to Mangan's sister, this is no laughing matter. He develops daily rituals to follow her to school, and tells us that he cries because of her. Maybe it's just not fair to call this a crush. After all, the kid "pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: 'O love! O love!" many times" (Araby.6). He's so plumb head over heels for this girl that everything around him becomes a backdrop—Dublin, the dead priest's room, it's all a blur.
When he finally talks to Mangan's sister, it's actually kind of a bummer. They don't say anything particularly interesting to each other, and he doesn't exactly sweep her off her feet. His true feelings come out in his promise to get her something from the bazaar—something he hopes will win her over.
Love Hurts
But here's the problem. For all his swooning and wooing and, um, stalking, his love isn't really anything special. Mangan's sister doesn't even seem aware of it. And when he finally gets to Araby, it's not like the clouds part to cast a ray of sunshine on the perfect gift. Nope. Instead, he encounters surly salesmen, to whom he's just another late customer, preventing them from closing up shop for the day.Along with the narrator, we're starting to feel upset that the aunt and uncle and shopkeepers are so insensitive. But are they? Probably not. The real problem is that the world isn't conforming to the narrator's grand expectations. He wants sweeping romance, and he winds up in a half-empty bazaar.
Love Stinks
Cue major revelation:Gazing up at the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger. (Araby.36)
Um, that's not exactly the response we were expecting, right? You want to impress someone you like by buying them a gift, but your uncle, and the mall (let's say) are conspiring against you. Who gets the brunt of your anger? Your uncle and the mall, right? Well, not in this case. The narrator turns back almost all of that feeling on himself. But why?
The narrator is really aware that he's in love with Mangan's sister, but it's something he holds inside himself: he doesn't tell a single person. So it's not like anyone else has his back with this. And even worse, it's not like his uncle kept him from going to the bazaar. At least not entirely. He had a chance to get a gift. A small chance, sure, but a chance. And he totally blew it. When it comes to love, he already knows, no one else can take the blame but you.
Or you could look at it another way. The bazaar hasn't lived up to his expectations. Maybe Mangan's sister won't either. After all, isn't his crush a kind of "vanity"? Hasn't he blown up its significance to crazy proportions? And the fact that it might all blow up because he couldn't get to market on time shows that it's all on shaky ground to begin with. He's no knight in shining armor, and Mangan's sister's no princess. They're kids in a city with forgetful uncles and surly shopkeepers and a whole bunch of other stuff just ready and waiting to burst their bubble.
Minor Characters
Mangan's sister
The narrator's would-be girlfriend doesn't even have a name of her own. She's just his friend's big sister, and she lives in the house directly across from his. In some ways, the story is all about her, but we only get a couple of descriptions of her in the story, and only one chance to hear her talk. As a presence in the narrator's mind, she's the most major figure there could be; but in "Araby," she a minor character.One pattern emerges whenever Mangan's sister appears in "Araby." Like a religious icon or a painting of Money, there's always some reference to light. When the narrator sees her on the railing outside her house calling her brother to dinner, "her figure [was] defined by the light from the half-opened door" (Araby.3). Later, in a similar situation, when she finally speaks to him, light makes the whole scene possible: "The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing […] just visible as she stood at ease" (Araby.9).
Check out the contrast between the light that shines on Mangan's sister and the "darkness" that encloses the bazaar once it's closed. That darkness—when they turn out the lights—means there's no hope for him anymore. He can't buy the gift, and can't win her, and basically can't possibly be happy (yes, he's being dramatic).
On the other hand, the light that allows him to see and appreciate Mangan's sister provides some hope that this narrator will, miraculously, escape his cage. Remember North Richmond Street, where he lives, is "blind:" for the narrator, Mangan's sister allows him light enough to see a way out.
Aunt and Uncle
The narrator lives with his aunt and uncle (just like in "The Sisters"), and he portrays them as distant but not all that bad. It's not like they're the Dursleys or anything. They're not terrible as parents, but they definitely don't understand why it's so important for the narrator to get to Araby. And come on, aunt and uncle, it seems kind of obvious. Can't they just be cool for a second?Araby:
The title holds the key to the meaning of Joyce's story. Araby is a romantic term for the Middle East, but there is no such country. The word was popular throughout the nineteenth century -- used to express the romantic view of the east that had been popular since Napoleon's triumph over Egypt. And, of course, the story is about Romantic Irony, for the unnamed boy has a romantic view of the world.
Joyce finished "Araby" in October of 1905: the eleventh in composition of the stories that would become Dubliners.
The story is about Orientation: notice how we derive that word from the Orient, from the East, originally meaning that, to orient yourself means to know in which direction the sun rises. The boy in "Araby" is disoriented, but will know the true compass of the world at the end of his journey -- a traditional form in literature (the German term Bildungsroman is so commonly used that it often appears in English dictionaries).
Mangan's sister :Joyce could count on readers making the connection with the popular, but sentimental and romantic 19th century Irish poet, James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849). Mangan was himself fond of writing about "Araby," and even though he knew no Arabic he claimed that some of his poems were translations from Arabic. Joyce's use of "Mangan" is one of the strongest supports for the theme of romanticism in the story, while at the same time it serves to strengthen previous instances of hypocrisy and false sentiment. Mrs Mercer:
Joyce selects this name to continue the imagery and theme of the mercantile and the mercenary, in the story. This effect is further supported by making her the widow of a pawnbroker, as well as the fact that she collects used stamps to sell for money to be given to the church. Again, money is being associated with religion, as it was in the paragraph in which the boy's shopping trip with his aunt is presented as a religious quest. The ultimate irony at the conclusion of the story is that what the boy thought of as a holy quest, to get a gift for the girl, was actually a sordid mercantile affair based on the sexual rather than the spiritual.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
ASSIGNMENT
Topic: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
as full of the Supernatural elements.
Course Code : ENG- 305
Course Title : Romantic Poetry
Submitted to : Md. Zahidul Islam
Lecturer
Department of English
Bangladesh Islami University
Submitted by : 16th (A) Batch
Date of Submission: 03-05-2014
Bangladesh Islami University
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as full of the Supernatural elements.
The supernatural elements actually appear with the albatross, which has arrived in order to help guide the Mariner's ship through a fog bank. When the Ancient Mariner kills the albatross, he has not only violated concepts of gratitude and hospitality, he has, on a whim, killed a living being that has come to same him and his ship. I believe we are meant to see the albatross, in part, in a Christian context--like Christ, who came to earth to save us, the albatross arrives to save the mariners and their ship, and the reward for this generosity is his execution.
Nature itself becomes relentlessly supernatural after the killing of the albatross: the wind stops, temperatures climb, drinking water runs out. These are not merely problems for a ship at sea; they are all life-threatening. The crew, sensing its own complicity in the Mariner's action, decide to hang the albatross around his neck, an allusion to the concept of the Judeo-Christian scapegoat, who wears an amulet representing the sins of the people and is sent into the desert to die for everyone's sins.
As we know, several horrific supernatural elements seal the fate of the ship and crew--slimy snakes from the bottom of the ocean come to the ship; a ghost-ship, with the figures of Death and Death-in-Life, arrives and the entire crew dies (Death) but the Mariner remains alive (Death-in-Life).
The Mariner's salvation comes when he, unconsciously and full of pity, blesses the slimy sea snakes, and the albatross falls from his neck, an indication that Nature and/or God has forgiven his original sin of killing the albatross. His penance, however, is not complete, for he has to keep telling his story, first to the hermit on the pilot boat and then to the Wedding Guest. It's only after the repeated telling of this awful tale that the Ancient Mariner achieves some peace. Unfortunately, the Wedding Guest is negatively affected by the tale, avoids the wedding, and wakes up the next day "a sadder and wiser man."
The supernatural elements, then, themselves contain elements of Nature's wrath at wanton cruelty, as well as implicitly Christian elements, that together create the retribution the Mariner suffers and the salvation he is offered at the end.
The greatness of S. T. Coleridge’s The Ancient Mariner lies chiefly in the technique by which the supernatural has been made believable and convincing. There are a number of impossible, incredible, and fantastic situations in the poem. The fascinating power in Mariner’s gaze, the sudden appearance of the mysterious skeleton ship, the spectre- woman and her mate, the coming back of life to the dead crew, the sudden sinking of the ship, the polar spirits talking to each other- all these and other supernatural incidents are scattered in the poem. With these supernatural elements the poet has artistically interwoven convincing pictures of Nature like the sun shining brightly at the outset, the mist and snow surrounding the ship, the freezing cold of the Artic region, slimy creatures creeping upon the sea, the moon going up the sky with a star or two beside it, the water snakes moving in the water in a variety of colors. The natural and supernatural, the real and fantastic, the possible ad the impossible have been so skillfully and artistically mingled that the whole strikesus as quite convincing and credible.
This literary ballad clearly contains many fantastical elements that are obviously supernatural. Important to note is the way that Coleridge in this poem creates a spirit that embodies Nature itself, called the Polar Spirit, that pursues the ship and rains down suffering and punishment on the vessel because of the thoughtless act of the Mariner in killing the albatross. However, arguably these supernatural elements are used as a way of presenting the torments that guilt can inflict on the human soul and the terrible expiation necessary for those who sin against nature in such a shocking fashion.
Of course, the pain and guilt experienced by the Mariner are a product of the pain and guilt of Coleridge himself, as suffered through his opium addiction, and so we are left to wonder if the fantastical elements that feature so strongly in this poem are dreamt up out of the opium-fevered imagination of its author. Either way, the supernatural elements show the force of The Polar Spirit, representing Nature, and the danger of taking Nature for granted.
The setting of the poem is natural, known to all. With a view to giving his story an air of plausibility, Coleridge gives accurate description of his nature. In the AM every phase of landscape, seascape and cloudscape is touched upon. The bright sun, the “Kirk” or church, the hill, the lighthouse, the cheerful onlookers at the harbor, the wedding guest, the marriage ceremony, the storm blast in the sea, the mist and snow of the Arctic region and many other natural elements are there in the setting of the story. All these natural phenomena have been made very convincing.
In this natural setting are set the supernatural incidents. A terrible storm hit and forced the ship southwards. The “storm blast” was “tyrannous and strong’ and struck the ship with”overtaking wings”. Then the sailors reached a calm patch of sea that was “wondrous cold” full of snow and glistering green icebergs” as tall as the ship’s mast.
And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold. The sailors were the only living things in this frightening, enclosed world where the ice made terrible groaning sounds that echoed all around.
The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a sound!
In his Ancient Mariner, Coleridge often blends the real and unreal in order to create a supernatural world. Here we see the story at first is given a known, familiar setting but soon it passes into an unreal world. The reader is not disturbed by this smooth transition from the real to the unreal world but indulges himself in the “willing suspension of disbelief”.
However, finally an albatross emerged from the mist, and the sailors received it as a sign of good luck, as though it were a “Christian soul” sent by God to save them. No sooner than the sailors fed the albatross did the ice break apart, allowing the captain to steer out of the freezing world. The wind picked up again and continued for nine days. All the while the bird followed the ship, ate the food the sailors gave it and played with them. But at this favorable moment the mariner did a hellish thing. He shot the bird with his cross bow.
From the moment the mariner kills the bird retribution comes in the form of natural phenomena. The wind dies, the sun intensifies and it will not rain. The ocean becomes “revolting”, “rotting” and “thrashing” with “slimy” creatures and sizzling with strange fires.
Coleridge depicts tactfully how nature punishes supernaturally for killing its innocent member. Before the sun was “bright” but now it has become
“the bloody sun.” in a “hot and copper sky”.
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
The nature continues punishing the mariners. The wind refuses to blow, and the sun’s relentless heat chars the men.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breathe nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean
This hot sun makes the mariners thirsty but they have no drinkable water.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
The mariner lives like Tantalus. They need water badly and it is all around them but it is entirely undrinkable. The throats became “unslaked” and “lips baked” under the hot sun.
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been choked with soot.
The shipmates, in their sore distress, throw the whole guilt on the ancient Mariner and in sign they hang the dead sea-bird round his neck.
‘Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.’
The time is weary and long. They have nothing to do but suffer only.
A weary time ! a weary time !
How glazed each weary eye,
When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.
A mysterious ship arrives. When the ship is sighted in the distance, the sailors feel happy to think that the will now get water to quench their burning thirst.
‘I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail ! a sail !’
But in a few moments they discover the reality of the ship. The crew
consists of Death and Life- in- death.
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.
Coleridge beautifully depicts the mental suffering of the Mariner under this condition:-
“Fear at my heart, as at a cup
My life blood seemed to sip.”
The suffering becomes even more painful when all his fellow men dropped down one by one. And the soul of each passes by him with the sound like that of his arrow that killed the Albatross.
“They dropped down one by one.”
For seven days and nights the mariner remained alone on the ship.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea !
The dead sailors, who miraculously did not rot, continued to curse him with their open eyes which intensified his inner guilt.
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
The Night-mare LIFE-IN-DEATH was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.
Coleridge beautifully depicts the mental suffering of the Mariner under this condition:-
“Fear at my heart, as at a cup
My life blood seemed to sip.”
The suffering becomes even more painful when all his fellow men dropped down one by one. And the soul of each passes by him with the sound like that of his arrow that killed the Albatross.
“They dropped down one by one.”
For seven days and nights the mariner remained alone on the ship.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea !
The dead sailors, who miraculously did not rot, continued to curse him with their open eyes which intensified his inner guilt.
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die.
His surroundings- the ship, the ocean, and the creatures within it are “rotting’ in the heat and sun, but he is the one who is rotten on the inside.
Coleridge beautifully portrays how he suffer from acute mental distress when he tried to pray but could not do so, how he felt the horror of the curse in the dead men’s eyes, how the sky and the sea lay like a heavy load on his weary eyes, and how finally he felt relief. This is exactly what any man would suffer under similar circumstances. By portraying mariner’s mental states, Coleridge produces the realistic effect.
During his lonely days he spent his times by watching the little creatures on the ice. The mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes, his heart fills with love for them and he can bless them “unaware”
“A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware”
Only when the mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, he is granted the ability to pray. The moment he begins to view the natural world benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched. As a sign, the albatross- the burden of sin falls from his neck.
‘The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.’
It finally rains and his thrust is quenched.
‘My lips were wet, my throat was cold,
My garments all were dank”
The ship suddenly began to move towards the native land of the old sailor. Ultimately the ship reached near the harbor. It sank suddenly and the old sailor was rescued from the disaster.
Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
During his lonely days he spent his times by watching the little creatures on the ice. The mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes, his heart fills with love for them and he can bless them “unaware” Only when the mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, he is granted the ability to pray. The moment he begins to view the natural world benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched. As a sign, the albatross- the burden of sin falls from his neck. It finally rains and his thrust is quenched. The ship suddenly began to move towards the native land of the old sailor. Ultimately the ship reached near the harbor. It sank suddenly and the old sailor was rescued from the disaster. Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
During his lonely days he spent his times by watching the little creatures on the ice. The mariner spontaneously recognizes the beauty of the sea snakes, his heart fills with love for them and he can bless them “unaware” Only when the mariner is able to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, he is granted the ability to pray. The moment he begins to view the natural world benevolently, his spiritual thirst is quenched. As a sign, the albatross- the burden of sin falls from his neck. It finally rains and his thrust is quenched. The ship suddenly began to move towards the native land of the old sailor. Ultimately the ship reached near the harbor. It sank suddenly and the old sailor was rescued from the disaster. Thus from the above discussion it is quite clear that, the triumph of “The rime of the ancient Mariner” confines in presenting a series of incredible events in a convincing and credible way by the use of natural setting, logic of cause and effect, melody and psychological truth.
On the above discussion we can say that there are many kinds of supernatural elements are found here.
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