The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, author Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells the story of a ship traveling towards the South Pole, and an old mariner aboard.  Through religious connections, figurative language, and characterization, Coleridge reveals the deeper meaning that man does not have the equal respect for nature that nature feels for man.
Throughout the piece, Coleridge makes religious connections to all the different aspects of struggle occurring in the story.  One example of this is in the second part of the piece, ¨Instead of the cross, the Albatross/About my neck was hung" (Coleridge).  This emphasizes mans disrespect for nature because by using dark images connecting to such a horrible, gory time in Christian history  shows how little man acknowledges the pain they cause involving nature. Another place we see religion involved in the story is when the crew and mariner beg and pled for forgiveness from their horrible sin of killing the bird and are now being punished for it, "To Mary Queen the praise be given!/She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,/That slid into my mind." In this quote, Coleridge emphasizes how little man understands the effect their actions have on the rest of the world, and believe that a simple apology will fix everything.  This connects to the overall conflict of man versus nature. 
Another big piece in the poem that really added to the message was the involvement of figurative language to emphasize the importance of the message.  One of the most predominant devices used was the personification of many different aspects from the story.  Towards the beginning of the story, when we first hear of the struggles the ship is enduring, ¨It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,/Like noises in a swound!¨ we see the ship personified. This adds to the overall message of the piece that men doesn't respect nature because although internally, man believes that he treats the world around him with respect, even though we know that this is not true.  The only reason that man was able to make it through this journey was because of the ship, but the only way for it to see and earn respect is by being seen as a human in its description. 
Thirdly, in the piece there is a lot of characterization. One big example of this is the characterization of the main character and storyteller, the mariner.  He is depicted as old, with a "grey-beard" and "bright-eyed." By showing the man like this, we see him in a humane setting.  Although the author's point was the negativity man has on nature, he depicts man as equal with the ship, and the Albatross and everything else that he lacks respect for to show that although man thinks he is much higher above the rest of the world, in reality everything is equal. 
In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's piece The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, he very successfully emphasizes the message and conflict of man versus evil through religious aspects, figurative language and characterization.