the sea. This symbolically is the return of Christ to the mariner (A, IV, 290-291). The second redemption of the mariner comes when the crewmembers reappear. According to Robert Penn Warren, the reappearance of the crewmembers is the relief from the curse (E, 40). The hermit and the wedding guest are both important figure is the redemption of the mariner. The hermit is a priest of god and the wedding guest is the catalyst into which the mariner confides his story, as he is doomed to do for the remainder of his days. The hermit is not only a priest of God, he is also a priest of society. It is the hermit that accepts the mariner back into society (E, 41). The wedding guest is a crucial figure in the plot as he is the way of confession for the mariner. While at first the wedding guest fears that the mariner is a ghost, the mariner assures the wedding guest that he is a true human, “Be calm, thou wedding guest! ‘Twas not those souls that fled in pain” (A, V, 345 – 346). as the mariner’s story continues, the wedding guest becomes sucked in and cannot make himself leave the mariner. This is because whenever the mariner comes into contact with someone that he needs to tell his story to, he and his subject become powerless but to listen to each other ( ...
