“Willing Suspension in Disbelief” in Coleridge’s “the Rime of Ancient Mariner”.

“Willing suspension in disbelief” in Coleridge’s “The Rime of Ancient Mariner”.

“Willing suspension in disbelief” is the method of bringing non-realistic, supernatural elements in justification in literature. It is a way through which a writer infuses a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative. This formula refers that the responsibility is on the readers, rather than on the writer, to achieve it. This also points to the willingness of the reader to overlook the limitations of the writer, so that it does not collide with his or her rational intellect.

Coleridge devised this phrase in his Biographia Literaria, published in 1817. During that period, the supernatural became completely unsophisticated among the educated people due to the emergence of new science. Coleridge wished to restore these elements in poetry. This concept of “willing suspension in disbelief” explained how a modern enlightened audience might continue to enjoy this kind of story. Coleridge said,

The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural, and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life…In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least Romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith…. With this view I wrote the "Ancient Mariner” (Biographia Literaria, xiv).

Coleridge wrote the poem in such a way that it invokes the reader to believe in it. The reader temporarily allows himself or herself to believe almost unbelievable story. It is a poem about sin, punishment, penance and salvation. And it is the reason so that a reader would give up his or her judgment on the topic and grant the story as true. The Mariner in the poem is telling his tale to a “Wedding Guest” who has no choice but to listen and to believe. The “Wedding Guest” in the poem represents “everyman” in the sense that “everyone” is to be at the marriage of the Mariner to life. That is, the reader is to follow, live, and participate with the idea of the poem.

The mariner is supposedly responsible for the death of the crew as he brought curse by killing the albatross, ‘a Christian soul’ that “made the breeze to blow”. It is rationally quite unconvincing that a mere bird can bring wind. But later in the poem, the wind drops down and the ship stands still “As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean”, suggesting that the albatross was the reason why the wind sided with the ship. Several times during his story the mariner talks about some elements that are considered impossible -‘the death-fires’, the skeleton of a ship (gloss), ‘The Nightmare Life-In-Death’, the ‘polar spirits’, the ‘angelic spirits’- or supernatural in day to day life. But the way in which Coleridge used these entities makes them much more than that.

The killing of a bird in physical world brings no great significance in human life. But in this poem Coleridge made it matter of utmost importance in the lives of the crew of the ship. The mariner has violated the sanctity of nature through killing the bird, and the rest of the crew accomplices by supporting his cause. As a result the nature begins to punish them all. The wind drops for as it is said earlier; furthermore they are haunted by a spirit who “loved the bird who loved the man” follows them from “the land of mist and snow”, the home of the albatross, to avenge its death.

“Water, water, everywhere, / And all the boards did shrink; /Water, water, everywhere, / nor any drop to drink” – thus the avenge began. The crew begins to die as soon as a horrific ship approaches “without a breeze, without a tide.” The mariner calls it “The Nightmare Life-In-Death.” They all die leaving the mariner with the ‘slimy things’ crawling under the sea to make his penance. The loneliness makes his life worse than the dead ones, “Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide wide sea.” Then one night he sees few water snakes and praises their beauty, and ‘the selfsame moment’ he can pray, and the albatross falls from his neck.

Then come two Polar Spirits who demand further penance of the mariner. They are then compelled to help him by the Angelic Spirits to carry on the journey. They make the dead crew row the ship. And when the ship reaches the shore, the Angelic Spirits take them to the next world, and the penance of the mariner comes to fulfillment.

“He prayeth well, who loveth well/ Both man and bird and beast. / He prayeth best, who loveth best/ All the things both great and small; / For the dear God who loveth us, / He made and loveth all”- these closing lines sums up the whole poem. The mariner finishes his tale and leaves the ‘wedding guest’ a “sadder and a wiser man” The wedding guest learns the punishment of violating God’s rule and takes teaching from the mistakes of the mariner.

The poem is written in such a way that the reader has to belief it. Coleridge placed the ‘fear of God’ in the readers mind and, this fear does the work for Coleridge. The consequences of the killing might not have any logical connection in the real world, but the way Coleridge represented it makes it very much coherent to the topic. And thus the reader falls in the prey of the poet. He or she retires from judging its improbability and shuts down his or her rationality. And that is how Coleridge accomplishes his deft use of “willing suspension in disbelief.”