The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Essay
Authors often use literature to give readers knowledge on how to live life and how to be the best person that they can possibly be. Samuel Coleridge and Leo Tolstoy are two authors who discuss morality and give beneficial life lessons in their literary works. Both Coleridge and Tolstoy teach their readers life lessons by using cautionary tales.
In Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the Mariner is the character that gives the wedding-guest in the poem, and readers, essential life lessons. The importance of Christianity and having faith is displayed in this poem when the Mariner says, “As if it [an Albatross] had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in God’s name.” (Coleridge 365). That line is essential because it shows how the …show more content…
That section of the poem is Coleridge’s way of letting readers know that once one strays from God, many aspects of that individual’s life begin to worsen. The Mariner continues to have horrific experiences until he “blessed them [water-snakes] unaware” (Coleridge 370). When the Mariner says, “The selfsame moment I could pray; / And from my neck so free / The Albatross fell off and sank”, he is letting the wedding-guest know that he had turned back to God and that his curse had been lifted (Coleridge 370). Coleridge uses that portion of the poem to let readers know that it is important to learn how to love all of God’s creations, and as a result, one will learn to pray and get closer to God. While the lessons learned in Coleridge’s text focus on the importance of Christianity, Leo Tolstoy uses his literary work to inform readers about the importance of living the “right life”.
In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, Tolstoy uses Ivan Ilyich’s character as a guide for everything that readers should not be. Tolstoy lets readers know how dull Ivan’s life was by saying, “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” (746). Ivan Ilyich was a man who based
In Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, the Mariner is the character that gives the wedding-guest in the poem, and readers, essential life lessons. The importance of Christianity and having faith is displayed in this poem when the Mariner says, “As if it [an Albatross] had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in God’s name.” (Coleridge 365). That line is essential because it shows how the …show more content…
That section of the poem is Coleridge’s way of letting readers know that once one strays from God, many aspects of that individual’s life begin to worsen. The Mariner continues to have horrific experiences until he “blessed them [water-snakes] unaware” (Coleridge 370). When the Mariner says, “The selfsame moment I could pray; / And from my neck so free / The Albatross fell off and sank”, he is letting the wedding-guest know that he had turned back to God and that his curse had been lifted (Coleridge 370). Coleridge uses that portion of the poem to let readers know that it is important to learn how to love all of God’s creations, and as a result, one will learn to pray and get closer to God. While the lessons learned in Coleridge’s text focus on the importance of Christianity, Leo Tolstoy uses his literary work to inform readers about the importance of living the “right life”.
In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, Tolstoy uses Ivan Ilyich’s character as a guide for everything that readers should not be. Tolstoy lets readers know how dull Ivan’s life was by saying, “Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” (746). Ivan Ilyich was a man who based