The Albatross

The albatross is the symbol most closely linked to the Christian moral allegory that critics often associate with the Mariner’s narrative. When this sea bird first appears, the sailors all hail it “as if it had been a Christian soul” (line 65). Hence, when the Mariner kills it, his companions interpret the act as a grave sin. It is for this reason that they force the Mariner to wear the albatross around his neck. Replacing the crucifix that a faithful Christian would normally wear, the dead albatross symbolizes the burden of the Mariner’s sin. For the rest of the poem, the Mariner must seek absolution for this sin. But to achieve absolution, he must first learn to recognize the sanctity of all creatures. He comes to this recognition at the end of Part 4, where he feels “a spring of love” (line 284) gush forth when he looks upon a host of roiling “water-snakes” (273). This experience leads him to prayer, at which point the albatross falls from his neck, disburdening him of the dead bird’s physical weight. Yet the sin of the Mariner’s action remains, which explains why he seeks absolution through confession—first to the Hermit, and now to the Wedding-Guest.

The Sun and the Moon

The sun and the moon figure prominently in the Mariner’s narrative. On a practical level, these celestial bodies serve an important navigational purpose, as the Mariner uses their relative position in the sky to determine the ship’s location and direction. On a more symbolic level, the sun and the moon represent oppositional cosmic forces that influence the Mariner and his crew. The sun, for instance, is closely associated with heat, dryness, and thirst, all of which plague the sailors on the ship. The Mariner also explicitly likens the sun to “God’s own head” (line 97), which indicates the sun’s symbolic connection to divinity. As the sun goes down and is replaced by the moon, occult forces become increasingly prominent. For instance, the Mariner describes how the ship with Death and Life-in-Death appeared on the horizon just as the sun was setting. Then, as twilight falls and the moon rises, the Mariner’s crew suddenly drops dead. In this way, the moon is associated with supernatural forces and occult phenomena. In addition to symbolizing the opposition between the divine and the demonic, the sun and moon also symbolize cyclicality—both the ordinary cyclicality of time and the Mariner’s journey through the cycle of sin and absolution.