Do Animals Have Souls?

Do Animals Have Souls? A Response to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Marinere

Allison Lowe

            On a surface reading, Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Marinere seems to be a caution tale about not killing animals. However, if the religious imagery is truly considered, much more is going on in this poem than is readily apparent. I intend to mainly discuss Coleridge’s descriptions of the albatross. When the albatross reveals itself in the fog, it is described as such, “It were a Christian Soul/ We hail’d it in God’s name” (53). These lines would seem to suggest that the albatross possesses a soul. Coleridge is going against a conservative Christian teaching that what separates humans from animals is that humans have soul, and animals do not.

            Or, let’s say line 61 (“It were a Christian Soul” is being hyperbolic. Rather than literally saying the albatross has a soul, the marinere is referring to how the crew attributes the albatross to the power of God. Thus, God is also responsible for the fog. This poem shifts from an ecological statement into a man versus God battle.

            I believe either take on the poem is valid. However, the last stanza in the second part seems to offer more power in the latter argument. Coleridge writes “instead of the cross the Albatross/ about [his] neck was hung (56). The albatross was a sacrifice, not shot out of anger, but to get rid of the fog to save the crew. The mention of the cross in this stanza is comparing the albatross’s sacrifice with that of Jesus Christ. Also, at the end of the poem, the Marinere gives advice to the wedding guest, saying “He prayeth well who loveth well/  Both man and bird and beast.” (72). Coleridge is not merely saying don’t kill animals to be a good Christian. Nor is he claiming that animals have souls. Coleridge is arguing that people should value the lives of animals more because they are closer to humans than most usually realize.