The Haunted Beach tells a story of guilt. The feeling of guilt, that the fisherman feels, occurs on a daily basis, just like the waves of the sea. The tide comes in and resurfaces the fisherman's guilt. The sea and beach becomes symbolic of the events that have occurred. The fisherman is haunted by the dead shipwrecked mariner. The sea's actions are a reminder of death. The entire scene of the beach has a gloomy feel. It is a "lonely" beach with a "somber" path. The image of sea birds "hover'd craving..." automatically calls upon an image of death. Birds prey on things that can be eaten and that are vulnerable. Much like these birds prey near the haunted beach, the fisherman's guilt preys on him. All of the imagery of nature, the sea, the birds, contribute to recreating the fisherman's wrongdoing. It has caused him to become a ghost. A ghost that haunts the beach, forced to carry the burden of forever being bound to the beach. Nature has this way of allowing personal experience to manifest itself in different parts of nature. The idea of guilt and life decisions haunting someone is a common theme in romantic literature. It is effective at recreating a story and sharing a person's guilt in a beautiful, and also terrifying, way that happens as frequently as the events of nature. With the variety of stories told relating to guilt it symbolizes us creating our own nature.
This is a persuasive reading of how the imagery connects to the theme of guilt. Where'd you find the picture?
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