superstitions and beliefs about the albatross
Written by hall on August 1st, 2008Read the articles on the following links and make a comment in response to the question below.
The sailors tell the mariner it is a bad thing that he killed the albatross, “Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,/ that made the breeze to blow!” but also that it was a good thing, “‘Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,/ that bring the fog and mist.” Using the information in the two articles you have read, do you think it was a good thing or a bad thing for the mariner to kill the albatross? Write your comment in a structured paragraph.
17
AM
I think it was bad for the mariner to kill the Albatross. In the story nothing good comes from slaying the bird. Bad luck instantly takes its toll on the mariner in a variety of ways. First he is forced to wear the bad luck around his neck. Then all his crew dies. I understand that good things did come from slaying the bird “Makes the breeze to blow”. There are many other birds to eat, so why kill the bird that brings bad luck and that is aid to have magical powers. Overall the mariner brought bad luck on himself, for killing the Albatross. Now the Mariner is forced to spend the rest of his days, telling others of his horrific journey.
17
AM
Killing the albatross could only be a bad thing. The are a number of superstitions, why you should not kill the bird.
Many sailors believed that disaster or death would haunt anyone who harmed or killed the bird. That was because the sailors thought that the bird contained the souls of lost sailors.
Albatrosses were believed to hold magical powers because they could glide endlessly without moving their wings. Why could be killing this creature a good thing if it had magical powers.
When you understand the superstitions of the sailors, there is no way killing the bird could bring any good fortune on yourself.
17
PM
I think it was bad to kill an albatross.
Sailor used to believe that the albatross had magical powers and that the albatross was a soul of someone who has died.
It was also believed by sailors to be bad luck to kill an albatross.
Killing an albatross never resulted in good luck as the ancient mariner discovered.
therefore killing analbatross couldn’t result in good luck
17
PM
The sailors tell the mariner it is a bad thing that he killed the albatross, “Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,/ that made the breeze to blow!” but also that it was a good thing, “‘Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,/ that bring the fog and mist.” Using the information in the two articles you have read, do you think it was a good thing or a bad thing for the mariner to kill the albatross? Write your comment in a structured paragraph.
Killing the albatross resulted in good and bad things for the ancient mariner. The good thing about the mariner slaying the albatross was that it stopped the fog and mist on their journey. But the bad things overwhelmed the good things immensly. For one thing the albatross brought a big storm to where the mariner was sailing and also the albatross made all of the crew of the mariners ship parched and that resulted in the death of all of the crew members except for the ancient mariner.
Consequently for the reasons above I think that the slaying of the albatross was a very bad thing to do and it resulted in very bad luck for the mariner and his crew.
17
PM
I believe it was bad for the mariner to kill this ancient magical bird, the albatross.
In the story of The Ancient Mariner the mariner not only inflicted bad luck onto himself but also on his superstitious crew, his actions resulting in their death.
Though with the absence of this great bird the wind did blow a gale “That made the breeze to blow!”, the mariner was left isolated to suffer this everlasting torture, as if like a slave he sailed through the fog and mist answering every order made by the curse. ‘Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on, My soul in agony.’
I still do not understand the intentions behind the mariners actions, as he was fully aware that whoever slayed the albatross would be bestowed with bad luck.
The mariner was left to suffer, and still to this day he wears the bad luck around his neck, telling his grueling story to all who will listen.
22
PM
The albatross
i don’t think you can decide weather it was a bad thing to kill the albatross because the text dosnt give any reasons why he shot in the first place. but i believe that it was wrong because of all the suffering that the marina went through. Also in the time when the ancient marina was written it was wildly considered to be bad so when the mariner shot the albatross he was risking the life’s of all the crew and he knew it. but we don’t know if the crew egged him on and the line “‘Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, that bring the fog and mist.”
i think killing the albatross was bad but i don’t think we have enough information to say whether what the marina did was wrong.