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Why does bad fortune befall the Mariner's ship?
There are several possible interpretations of the events of the poem. The first storm that befalls the ship may have been chance, after which the albatross really brought fair weather, and the death of the albatross doomed the Mariner and the crew. Or the albatross brought bad fortune instead of good. Or the albatross was just a bird, nothing more, and all of crew's suffering is purely bad luck. Or the crew was doomed from the start, and fated to suffer regardless. The story is full of symbols with changing meaning, the most prominent of which is the albatross. Ask students to consider the implications of this as they...
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