Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Joining of Two
One of the things always wondered on was why does the Mariner tell his story at a wedding. With the talk being about the slave trade why would you want it to take place there. Having the talk at a wedding seems like such an inappropriate place for this to take place but it makes sense when you look at it as a joining. A wedding is a joining of two people into one and a celebration. I think this fits with the slave trade because England is so intertwined with the slave trade it is like they are married. Getting out of it is hard, takes time and a lot of money. With the Mariner stopping a guest from going into the wedding and joining in with the celebration he is trying to enlighten the guest and broaden that guests thinking because staring with the base of the people and having those thoughts work there way through the people slowly changing how they think is how social change happens.
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I also found the idea of the mariners tale taking place at a wedding to be very compelling. While the tie between England and slavery is one of what I believe to be the main reasons Coelridge uses the wedding as the initial setting, I also thought it was interesting to look at the link, or rather marriage, between the guests of the wedding and the fruits of slavery. These middle to upper class people are guests of wedding between two people and are obviously enjoying the products of slavery that benefit their positions in the current society.
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