Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Eye is a Window
In the Rime of the Ancient Mariner I loved the symbolism of the eye as a window to the soul. Although it may sound cliché, the Mariner's eye holds the key to his mind; as we have discussed Gothic literature is all about digging inside one’s head, in this case the Mariner's. We see this first with "He holds him with his glittering eye—The Wedding-Guest stood still," at this point the guest of the wedding has begun to delve into the mind of the Mariner. Once he starts telling the story we see a line which repeats, “The bright-eyed Mariner”, this line keeps the reader intrigued because the repetition of it adds a mysticism to the poem before the Mariner really gets into telling his story. In the entirety of the poem the word eye is repeated nineteen times each one referring to a sort of window to the soul. In a way we are the wedding guest running to the wedding, the fun, and yet sometimes we fail to take the time and just look at someone and learn who they really are.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great insights! The eye is absolutely crucial to the poem; it fastens the wedding guest to mariner, forcing him to listen to the tale whether he wants to or not. The eye/I is also crucial because most of the poem is written from the mariner's first person perspective, suggesting that he has been a witness to the events recorded there. As we saw in "The Thorn," just looking at something, observing it empirically, is often not enough to establish the "truth"--in fact, it often makes you miss the point entirely. Consider this as an allegory for Coleridge's poem: if you take it on face value and see it only as a poem about a crazy sailor whop shoots an albatross, you are probably missing part of the point! You are encouraged to look past the surface and into the "soul" of the poem.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting analysis of the poem. I too felt as if i was the wedding guest and the mariner was telling me the story. The description of the eye in the beginning is what intrigued me, i wanted to hear the story of how his eye became that way. I would probably be scared of the mariner as well, but stay because i was so intrigued by his story. I do not think the story revolves around the eye despite how many times it is mentioned. The eye in my opinion is a starting point. The wedding guest may have just left if his eye was normal, and we would have not heard his story..
ReplyDelete