Chris Nielson ENGL 2620

Death and his Mate

Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner features a scene involving two figures
aboard a ghost ship who identify as Death and his significant other, Life-in-Death, hereafter
called Death’s Mate. They, upon the crew of the Ancient Mariner’s discovery of them, gamble
for the souls of the crew and Death’s Mate is declared the winner. Discerning from the fate of the
crew, it could be assumed that Death claimed the crew, eschewing his Mate’s entitlement to the
fate of the crew. However, with Death’s Mate being similar to Death himself, it can be assumed
that her fate for the crew is different yet similar to that of the destiny Death had in mind for the
crew. Consider how the Mariner is almost targeted by hardship and enmity while the crew
escapes sharing in his awful destiny. The Mate of Death, with consideration to the Christian
background of the poem, is Hell.
It seems fair to start with the killing of the Albatross as that event appears to be pivotal to
the lead up to the meeting of Death. This is shown by the events proceeding and also because
those events are set up in such a way as to indicate the idea of the meeting being the fulfillment
of the Mariner’s curse for the murder of the Albatross. It can be assumed that the curse of Life-
in-Death was indeed centered on the Mariner, not just because he alone survived the following
trip back home but because he is the only one to suffer her curse alone. Again, it almost seems as
though the crew of the Mariner’s ship escape the worse fate by falling victim to the lesser fate,
which in this case is Death. It is clear that The Mariner’s murder of the Albatross is considered a
crime by nature as the good fortune of the ship and her crew turns sour after the committing of
the crime. This is evidenced because following the bird caused the crew to escape danger and
imprisonment within the ice floes; while the death of the bird seemed to cause wild weather
occurrences, such as fog and sunny skies back-to-back of each other and also causing the crew to
suffer from drought. As the slaughter of the Albatross leads the crew into the series of events that
grants them the status that they find themselves in with the ghost ship that carried Death and his
Mate, it makes sense to connect the slaughter of the Albatross, and its subsequent bad fortunes,
to this meeting with Death. With this in mind, it makes sense to call the meeting of Death the
climax of the series of bad fortunes, as the rest of the poem is built upon the fate that befalls the
crew and the Mariner, specifically. For instance, with no water for them to drink and having
witnessed an event that was definitely demoralizing, if not outright terrifying, it only after this
event that the crew well and truly succumbs to the clutches of death.
Interestingly, it is only the Mariner who survives the initial curse, which while
simultaneously giving more life to the belief that the crew died by the Mariner’s hand, also
emphasizes the fact that it was him that caused the Albatross to die and therefore the curse is his
burden to bear alone. Additionally, it only once the Mariner is able to pray again to God that the
Albatross, which has been acting as a sort of metaphor for the cross that Christ carried up to this
point, slips off of his shoulders and goes beneath the waves. All this leads one to think that the
curse of Death’s Mate is not that he should die, but that he should be tormented, and at sea, there
is few other torments worse than to suffer alone, especially if that isolation is by one’s own hand.
 In the Rime, it is implied that the Mariner is the one who kills the crew in the lines “The
souls did from their bodies fly…/And every soul, it passed me by/ like the whizz of my
crossbow!” (Coleridge pp. 454. Lines 220, 222-23) It can be assumed that the Mariner took the
lives of each of his fellow crewmembers, or at the very least, he did not mind watching the crew
die as the lines “Each turned his face…/ And cursed me with his eye.” (Coleridge pp. 454. Lines
214-15) suggest a hint to the motivation that the Mariner would be feeling from the crew after
the excruciatingly events that they had all suffered through. Consider also how the crew hoped
for salvation in the ghost ship, sighted by the Mariner as well, to turn out just as bad as all that
they had previously suffered, if not more so. With the slaying of good fortune, the onslaught of
ill, and the sighting of Hell’s ship disguised as false salvation, it might even be considered
merciful that the crew only cursed the Mariner with their eyes. Even if he wasn’t immediately
involved in the deaths of the crewmembers, which would certainly be traumatizing all on its
own, watching his longtime friends and family die by other means, such as the possibility of
dehydration, would be horrifying to witness. In such circumstances, it is easy to see why the
Mariner would pass so quickly in his retelling over the fates of the crew as they all fell;
regardless of whether they did so by his hand or by some other supernatural force.
However, regardless of how the lives of the crew were taken, it still doesn’t change the
fact that in either case, the Mariner is left alone to fend for himself against “water-snakes”
(Coleridge, pp. 455. Line 273), spirits hostile and friendly, madness, isolation, the hint of
cannibalism, dead men rising again, continuing bad weather, and also the continuing drought.
The Mariner is quite literally at the mercy of God, who he ends up relying on for support at
several points with the dead crewmembers, the weather cooperating with his wishes to return to
land, and the return of water so he can survive the trip back. To say that he is at the whims of
nature itself is not only completely accurate but also even putting it lightly to some extent.
Regardless, the isolation of the Mariner’s existence seems to be the core of the issue as even
when he returns home, he is still characterized as being alone, albeit emotionally or mentally. In
this sense, it seems that the Mariner’s fate by Death’s Mate is to remain alone, as it is only after
the meeting with Death that the Mariner becomes alone, even while his crew is still alive, for the
crew only truly ostracizes him to the point of death after the meeting. It is then that, as has been
previously discussed, the crew truly abandons him and he decides to cut himself off from their
presence, either literally or figuratively, considering how quickly he decides to cut himself off
from telling the extent of their story.
And on that point, the story comes full circle and now on rests on the role of Life-in-Death and
how she rolled for the fate of the Mariner and his crew. The name of Death’s Mate tells much
about the character. Considering the character’s name as being in reference to an Afterlife, it
makes clear the unusual circumstances that unfold after the Mariner’s cursing and the strangely
specific nature of said circumstances. For, after this event, the Mariner is subjected to Spirits of
Nature banishing him from the South Pole, angels taking pity on him and taking control of the
dead crew to help steer his now-defunct ship towards home, and continual references are made
through out the text on death, the judgement day, God, Hell, and undeath, even to the point of the
wedding guest making mention of his fear that his storyteller may in fact be dead and therefore a
spirit! The idea also persists in ideas relating to many religious ideas that pertain to on how to
reach the afterlife, such as redemption, sin, confession, forgiveness, the mode of transportation
from this life to the next, and so on!
On this last point, it might be argued that as the story largely takes place inside of a boat that the
Mariner is in fact dead and telling the story of how he now travels through purgatory towards the
Judgement Day, cursed to wander around the earth, continually sharing his mistakes and it’s sad
story with all he meets, not just for the hope of being redeemed from his purgatory but for the
hope of preventing others from meeting and sharing in his fate. All that aside, it is clear that the
Mariner has been taken from the Earth, in some symbolic fashion, and is now being shown the
power of Life-in-Death, with all the trappings, powers, horrors, and glories of both Heaven and
Hell and beyond. In this sense, one could compare the Mariner’s role in seeing these supernatural
torments and blessings as being similar in function to that of an ancient seer from religious texts,
like the Bible or the Quran, in the sense that the Mariner, upon witnessing the pains of a negative
afterlife like Hell, now is compelled to remind the common folk, like the Wedding Guest, of the
reasons why they fear God and keep his commandments. The only difference is that many
prophets from the Bible are often shown visions of Heaven and angels while being commanded
to call upon God’s people to perform some shape of recompense for straying from His
commands, while this has very little Heavenly influence, aside from the pieces needed to make
sure that the Mariner returns to share his telling of the vision. With this in mind, the visionary
experience that the Mariner suffers under appears to be more of a rebuke from God that is
centered on the Mariner, rather than a sweet command on his whole people to return to Him. Yet
to simply call it a rebuke and assume that it is only to punish the Mariner does not make sense, as
the event has caused the Mariner to return home and share his experiences in the hopes of
preventing it. In this sense, it makes good logic to say that the Mariner’s role is still one of
teaching and sharing experiences with the less weathered, like that of old religious prophets, and
to thus prepare and prevent others from following in his footsteps, though at the cost of the
Mariner’s sanity and his soul. With this in mind, the Mariner’s role is not to call people back to
God like a saint or seer of ages gone by, but more like a soul damned to Hell’s tortures and
torments, crying out in constant pain for all to beware the Devil as Hell’s jaws shut on him yet
tighter still.
To refer to Life-in-Death as anything less than Hell would be to ignore how aggressive the
supernatural events following the Meeting with Death are on breaking the Mariner’s mind and
soul before he returns home. And even upon returning, he is still not free from the scars that the
experience has left him with. The way that the Mariner refers to his seeking of absolution, the
clearly defined hope and terror he feels at being isolated from society and God till he finds what
he likely thinks is impossible to find, is very indicative of a sort of obsession that stains the
Mariner’s mind. This experience is very similar to accounts given about the trauma experienced
by war veterans, though the war is one fought between supernatural forces, rather than mortal
ones. To suffer through storms and disasters, mystical events that bend the mind, events and
circumstances that would only push one to the farther limits of physical and emotional distress,
and all as punishment for slaying a symbol of hope and good fortune. This can only be the work
of one who would clearly be named Hell.
Work Cited:
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” The Norton Anthology; English
Literature: The Romantic Period, Volume D, 10th Edition, 2018. pp. 454. Lines 220, 222-223