24/03/14: Timed essay. Please hand the essay in to Miss Jamil at the end of the lesson
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an exploration of the unconscious mind. How do you respond
to this reading of the poem?
Indicative content:
Some will agree and
 discuss the poem from a psychoanalytical perspective
 reference might be made to the Mariner, the Wedding Guest or the creative artist behind the poem
(Coleridge)
some will deconstruct the task and say
 the poem is an exploration of the conscious mind or the minds of human beings in extremity
 some might suggest other ways of responding to “exploration”, etc.
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Model Intro and paragraph (don’t use this in your own essay!!!)
Coleridge had a deep-seated fear of the consequences of sin and his long-running battle with opium
addiction both fascinated and repelled him. So it is plausible that he is using this crisis narrative to
explore the effects of sin upon the unconscious mind. However, the Mariner’s tormented narrative
could be more convincingly argued to to be an allegory for the human cost of a being a poet and of
Coleridge’s constant fear that his creative spring would eventually dry out. In fact, this is supported
by Coleridge himself, who described the poem as being a “continued allegory and a darke conceit”.
In the opening of Part II, directly after the Mariner has shot the albatross, the “good south wind” is
blowing and this seeming calm perhaps reflects the moment before the true understanding of a
sinful action begins. The Mariner appears to acknowledge that he has done a “hellish thing”, and it
could be that Coleridge is using the sailor’s inability to decide whether it was right or not to “slay”
the bird as a metaphor for the Mariner (or the poet’s) internal struggle with his conscience. This may
be borne out when the ship becomes becalmed, reflecting the indecision and moral stultification of
the Mariner’s mind. Furthermore, as the Mariner becomes immured in his own guilt, his mind begins
to warp and hallucinate, populating itself with phantasmagoric “slimy things”, “death fires” and
water “like a witch’s oils”; this is certainly convincing evidence to suggest Coleridge was describing
the torture of his own mind when in an opium-induced trance.
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Different interpretations
 A dramatisation of Coleridge’s deep sense of sin
 A myth expressing the Romantic belief
 in “the One Life”
 A nightmare voyage into the irrational
 An allegory/parable about the human cost of being a poet
 A morality tale or parable about one man’s crime and experience
 An allegory of the fall, purgation and salvation, of the individual/human race
 A symbolic expression of how imagination reveals hidden spiritual realities
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Critical quotes
“In my judgment, the poem [has] too much moral, and that too openly obtruded on the reader. It
ought to have no more moral than the story of the Genii starting up and saying he must kill the
merchant, because a date shell had put out the eye of the Genii’s son.”
- In Table Talk, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“I was totally possessed by it for days - I dislike all the miraculous part of it, but the feelings of the
man under the operation of such scenery dragged me along like Tom Piper’s magic whistle.”
- Charles Lamb in a letter to William Wordsworth, January 1801
“[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner] is less a fantasticall imagination and a drowsie dreame than a
continued allegory and a darke conceit*.”
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
*extended metaphor
“The Albatross . . . binds separately together the three structural principles of the poem: the voyage,
and the supernatural machinery, and the unfolding cycle of the deed’s results.”
- Lowes, The Road to Xanadu
“The Albatross is the symbol of Coleridge’s creative imagination, his eagle.”
- TS Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
“The God of the poem, however, is a jealous God; and in context the moral tag carried the
concealed threat that even the most trivial violation of his love will bring ruthless and prolonged
punishment.”
- Edward E Bostetter, The Nightmare World of The Ancient Mariner
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Exemplar of a Section A debate question on The Great Gatsby
Read the intro, topic sentences and conclusion for this Bd 6 essay: notice how the question is clearly
answered:
How appropriate do you think it is to label The Great Gatsby 'a rags to riches story'?
 Within The Great Gatsby, the idea of moving from 'rags to riches' is certainly a key pattern.
Despite this, the structure of events do not comply with the 'rags to riches' formula, and
Gatsby's pursuit of 'riches' ultimately does not seem to be enough to satisfy his ambition.

Within the non-chronological effects of the narrative, Gatsby does not seem to be presented
as moving from 'rags to riches'.

On the other hand, it could be argued that within the money-obsessed 1920s culture,
conveyed by the novel, 'riches' remains the ultimate goal of achieving happiness.

On the whole, the novel includes the pattern of pursuing 'riches', but it cannot be said to be
a 'rags to riches' story. This is because the real focus is arguably on what happens to Gatsby
when he is dissatisfied with his 'riches' and desires more. The deaths at the end of the novel
prove that 'riches' are out of reach for Myrtle, and Gatsby, who desire them.
Section A
Even
Question
Debate
Content
Set up your argument in the opening paragraph
 Para 1: one argument
 Para 2: counterargument/other interpretation
 Continue to end of essay.
The key words for success are: context, sustained argument,
consider different interpretations, evaluate (e.g. perhaps the
Ancient Mariner is a physical embodiment of the poet’s
creative anguish, although it may be more plausible to
suggest that . . .).
ALWAYS analyse the EFFECT and use QUOTES
AOs
AO1,
3, 4
Timings
30 min
10 min:
thinking and
planning.
20 min:
writing and
editing
Marks
21