Rime Of The Ancient Mariner Analysis Essay

Samuel Coleridge’s use of paratext in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, henceforth referred to as “Mariner” is interesting and problematic as it offers itself as another part of the narrative, instead of placing itself separate from it. This paratextual problem persists in the underlying issues found in the title; these would include the strange word choice in the title of rime, and the framing of the mariner as ancient. The later edition of “Mariner” elevates this problem with the addition of the marginal gloss. Here, the text forces the reader to question the role the paratext plays in the narrative. The problem with the paratext is that it misdirects the reader who at first might believe the paratext is unbiased, but later must critically
Additionally, the marginal gloss adds a key detail here, that the mariner narrators this. This detail breaks the reader out of the immersion of believing that they are reading the events as they occur. I would suggest that the marginal gloss’ narrator does this immersion breaking in order to discredit the narrator of the poem, or possibly reaffirm this narrator’s presence by actively acting in the retelling of this story. As Huntington Brown describes in her article “The Gloss to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “For only in one place does he do anything but paraphrase the story, and the paraphrase on several occasions rounds out and carefully articulates ideas that are only suggested or remain ambiguous in the poem”