The mariner's story is not necessarily dramatic at first. He has to get someone involved in his experience before it becomes dramatic. Coleridge saw this and realized the need for drama to hook his reader (not the wedding guest). The only way to hook a reader is through drama. And the only way to provide drama is through conflict. Thus Coleridge invents a small dramatic conflict between the mariner and the wedding guest. The wedding guest wants to go to the wedding, where he is to play an important role and everybody is expecting him. The mariner wants him to stay and listen to his long story. The mariner actually is holding the wedding guest to prevent him from leaving. The wedding guest shows his impatience and annoyance:
He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.
"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
This conflict is not particularly significant or important per se, but it adds a touch a drama and another dimension to the poem. The wedding guest will continue to protest from time to time, and the ancient mariner will continue to hold him in a spell. The mariner is the winner in the end, because he compels the young man to listen to his entire story and succeeds in creating the impression he wants to make on him. The very last stanza reminds us that the poem has been a story within a story and that there has been a conflict all along. This puts a sort of "frame" around the mariner's story, and there is of course a strong contrast between the two characters, one of whom is young and has his whole life ahead of him, and the other who is old and has his whole life behind him. Young people seldom want to listen to boring old men, but in this case the old man has left an indelible impression on the young one.
He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.
No comments:
Post a Comment