The history of the wedding guest frame at Coleridge’s "The old sailor’s rhyme"
One thing we learned about literature upon completion of the PhD is that frame history is important. You know what I’m talking about even though you probably haven’t thought about it. It is the story that comes at the beginning and end of the narrative itself. It frames it. As in Joseph Conrad Heart of darkness when Marlowe is on the boat saying “this was also one of the dark places on earth”. So Marlowe launches into the history of his time in Africa. That framework story is very important and helps explain everything about the novel. That’s right: the frame story contains the key to the entire narrative.
So if you have to write an essay on any literary work, consider the frame story and try to find out why it is there and if it contains the theme of the entire work. As an example, let’s look at “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Remember the plot of this narrative poem, I hope. It is the one in which the ship is visited by an albatross, but then the narrator, the Ancient Mariner, kills the albatross for no reason. Then the ship comes to a standstill, is visited by a ghost ship with Death and Life-in-Death. All die except the Ancient Mariner himself, and he is taken back to England, where he discovers that all of God’s creatures are important, both “great and small.”
It’s a great supernatural story, to be sure, but there’s this strange story about a wedding guest. However, it is very important. The Ancient Mariner is forced to tell his story to certain people. In fact, “The moment I see his face, / I know the man who should listen to me: / I teach him my story.” The Ancient Mariner rhyme is more than just a story; it is a lesson, a parable, a lecture. After all, he teaches those who need to hear him. And this particular wedding guest needs to hear it.
The wedding guest is literally that, a wedding guest. You are about to step inside and enjoy the wedding celebration when the Ancient Mariner stops you and holds you spellbound while teaching you this important lesson. Observe what the Wedding Guest says to the Ancient Mariner: “The doors of the Bridgroom are wide open, / And I am the closest relative; / The guests are welcomed, the party is ready: / Hear the merry noise”. The wedding guest wants to party with everyone else! That’s all he cares about. He doesn’t care about the wedding itself; he just wants to have fun with them. However, this wedding guest has lost the meaning of the wedding. A wedding was supposed to be a mirror of Christ’s relationship with the church, not just an excuse for the party. But this guy doesn’t understand that. He doesn’t even mention the wedding, just the party.
In the end, however, his tone has changed. After hearing the Old Sailor’s story of affliction and redemption, he no longer even wishes to go to the wedding banquet: “and now the Wedding Guest / He turned away from the groom’s door. / He left as one who has been stunned, / And it is of helpless sense: / A sadder and wiser man, / He got up tomorrow morning. “
The old sailor’s story worked. It taught the wedding guest to think straight and not worry about selfish pleasure. Instead, he now knows that “He is the one who prays best, the one who loves best / All things, both great and small; / For the beloved God who loves us, / He made and loves everything.”
So don’t neglect the history of the frame. Think of a way to read the frame story so that it contains the whole theme of the narrative.