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Question
Why does the ancient Mariner compel the wedding guest to listen to his story?
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Solution
The ancient mariner compels the wedding guest to listen to his story because he is driven by guilt for killing the albatross and suffers from agony. He wanders around from place to place to tell his story to different people because when he tells his story to someone he is temporarily relieved from his agony. Besides, he also wants to preach the lesson he learnt from the incident that took place to other people. The mariner has the power of sensing whom he should tell the tale. He says towards the end of the poem that the moment he sees a man’s face, he knows whether he should tell him the story or not. Thus, in a way he is bound to tell his story to the wedding guest.
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Imagine that the mariner hears of Mrs Packletide’s hunt and decides to share some advice with her about the impact of wilfully killing creatures. As the mariner, write this letter, in about 150 words, to Mrs Packletide, based on the consequences following your own experience of having killed a creature intentionally.
