Romanticism

The Romantic period lasted from 1789 to 1837

First generation romantic poets included Blake, Wordsworth and (his best friend) Coleridge.

Romanticism featured many binary oppositions such as: Self vs. Society (could be interpreted a the Mariner vs. the Crew) and Rational vs. Irrational (Reality vs. Supernatural)

It featured a fascination with Liminal spaces, places on the edge or between two realms of existence and Metaphysics, concern with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. This links to how the Mariner is isolated in a liminal space as punishment.

It rejected impersonal and artificial feeling which lead to a disdain for Shakespeare's work and explains why characters who acted artificially or without feeling were often punished in their works (e.g. the Mariner)

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Romantic poets generally favoured the powers of nature over religion, placing greater importance on imagination; believing that it had the power -when inspired by nature- to overcome human suffering. This meant that rather than being escapist, work was often rooted in human suffering in order to stress that nature and its influence over imagination had the power to relieve human pain. This connects to how the Mariner has to find beauty in nature to be redeemed and how he was punished for not appreciating nature (killing the Albatross).

It placed great importance on the individual, taking interest in the common man and childhood and the strong sense, emotions and feelings felt by the individual. 

It placed interest in overreaches in mythology such as Icarus and Prometheus and their punishment, connecting to the character of the Mariner and how he was punished for shooting the Albatross.

The Ballad form was popular in Romanticism perhaps because of the lives of Balladeers who traveled alone telling stories and singing songs. These would have interested them because of their absorbation in the individual and how the songs they would sing would commonly be about nature, love, tragedy, unrequited love and legends. Coleridge's ancient Mariner could be interpreted as a kind of balladeer.

The Romantics embraced feelings of sincerity, spontaneity and originality which links to how the Mariner earns his redemption by his sincere and spontaneous feelings of appreciation and awe at nature/God's creations.