One of the themes in Rime of the Ancient Mariner is Sin and Redemption. After the Mariner commits the sin of shooting the Albatross, guilt begins to manifest in all kinds of super natural forms. The Albatross is a representative of nature, but means nothing to the Mariner. Nature quickly changes and began punishing him for killing the symbol of nature. He is then penalized by the rays of the sun and mocked by the sight of water that he could not drink.
Afterward the Mariner begins realizing what the beauty of nature really means to him. At this point he has a change of heart and repents his wrong doing. The mariner begins to find his salvation when he starts to see the ‘slimy things’ as creatures of strange beauty. He now understands the Albatross is a symbol of nature and he realizes what he had done wrong. The bird, which is hung around his neck as a punishment, falls into the water and makes the change from punishment to penance.
Two super natural figure shows up, one is Life in Death and the other is Death. They both gamble for his life and Life in Death ends up winning the Mariner. He now must live life in death and endure his penance for the rest of his life and seek out certain people to tell his tale because his soul tortures him until he delivers the message. Another theme in this poem is respect for nature. All Romantic poets including Coleridge worship nature and the beauty of the natural world. Everyone should respect all of God’s creation as well as the Albatross and the sea snake.
The Mariner is an actual symbolic representation of Adam. The Ancient Mariner slaying of the Albatross is equal to Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. This story takes on elements from the stories of Adam and Eve and crucifixion of Christ.
The moon and sun plays an important symbol in this story. The sun represents God’s influence of wrathful power but the moon has a more positive association than the sun. Generally troubling outcome happens to the Mariner during the day while more favorable result happens by moon light. For example, the mariner’s curse lifts and he returns home by moonlight.