spiritual fabrics living manifestations, the Watersnakes. The difficulty in escaping from this punishment lies in its need to be achieved unwittingly; only a pure and selfless appreciation could free the Mariner.Such a scenario reflects strongly the beliefs of the Romantic Movement to which Coleridge subscribed at his time of writing. Central to the period in which Romanticism flourished was the affirmation of the need for a freer and more subjective expression of passion and personal feelings. In such a way, the thoughtless acts of the Mariner, in both the cause of his exile from Coleridges spiritual fabric and the means of his re-entry, hold far more importance than the profound loneliness and remorseful fear he later experiences. Directly influencing this Romanticist explication is Coleridges own personal battle with guilt and punishment, a battle fertilised by his opium addiction and his reputation as a man of notoriously unreliable habits.As one body seems the aggregateOf atoms numberless, each organised,So by a strange and dim similitudeInfinite myriads of self-conscious mindsAre one all-conscious spirit--Destiny of Nations (Coleridge)Inspired by his various psychological and pathological crutches, Coleridge constructs a powerful invitation for the reader to join him in his visions of truth, passion and love. The text alludes that beneath the veneer of our physically constructed selves lies an emotional power directing our actions and being directed by those of the world. Through the text, Coleridge demonstrates his belief in a collective human spirit, an inherited wealth of emotional and spiritual power if we have the emotional and spiritual temperance to accept it. Tis the sublime in manOur noontide majesty, to know ourselvesParts and proportions of one wondrous whole--Religious Musings (Coleridge)Hinging this spiritual force to the text is the Mariners experience of guilt and punishment derived from his thoughtless and t...
