A Study On The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner From The Perspective Of Eco-ethical Criticism

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a long narrative poem by the English Romantic poet Coleridge and is regarded by many critics as the greatest ecological poetic allegory in English literature.This poem tells a story of an ancient Mariner who kills an albatross for no reason on a sailing voyage.As a consequence,he loses his all shipmates and suffers from the severe punishment of the nature.Although the ancient Mariner is finally saved by the blessing of the water-snakes,he must endure eternal spiritual torment,and repent all his life.This poem demonstrates the disastrous consequences brought about by the conflicts between man and nature,suggesting that only if man loves nature and each other can he coexist with nature harmoniously,and gain a way for self-redemption.This thesis takes the theory of eco-ethical criticism as its theoretical basis,combining Coleridge’s philosophy of “One Life”and his religious outlook of “sin and punishment”,to probe the eco-ethical thoughts in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in terms of the relationship between man and animals,man and the sea,man and other people as well as man and himself.This thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter one makes a brief introduction to Coleridge’s works,the story of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,as well as literature review of the studies of this poem by scholars at home and abroad,and states the research feature and structure of this thesis.Chapter two discusses the connection between eco-criticism and eco-ethics and illustrates Coleridge’s philosophy of “One Life” in detail.Chapter three mainly expounds Coleridge’s philosophy of “One Life” embodied in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by analyzing the relationship between man and animals,man and the sea.Chapter four focuses on Coleridge’s philosophy of spiritual ecology,especially how to realize spiritual harmony through fraternity and confession,in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.The last chapter sums up the eco-ethical thoughts in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.Coleridge’s thoughts have ecological and ethical significance in terms of nature and religion respectively.Finally,this thesis points out the limitation of Coleridge’s philosophy of “One Life”.