It is the sudden, unanticipated, and arbitrary event which has traumatic consequences. Modern life has multiplied the potential for such occasions, in the remote and mechanised devastation of warfare or the unexpected shock of a road accident. The survivors of Hiroshima described by Lifton suffered some of the worst and most enduring traumas that have been studied, a direct result of the scale of destruction at Hiroshima. Lifton points out that the whole of the city was inundated by death: at 1.2 miles from the center of the blast, for instance, if you were out of doors and survived, it has been estimated that eight out of ten people around you died (Lifton, 28). The Mariner, in comparison, watches two hundred die, and is the only survivor. As with the survivor of Hiroshima, the Mariner is literally immersed in death.

Such an overwhelming encounter with death results in a psychic closing-off which is at the same time accompanied by a profound sense of guilt. To have been singled out for survival, by being stronger or luckier than others, is itself to be guilty. Such guilt "both interferes with, and is further stimulated by, psychic closing-off" -- a double bind for the victim, which is to have enduring consequences. The survivor, says Lifton, "must look upon his motives and urges as evil -- because he is part of a disaster which (whatever he did or did not do) defeated cooperative effort to limit its human toll, and because he cannot accept either his urge to survive or the fact of his survival" (Lifton, 42, 56).

"Fear not, fear not, thou Wedding Guest!" says the Mariner, "This body dropt not down" (230-1). That is his curse: that he survived while all the others died. His self-disgust is evident: "a thousand thousand slimy things / Lived on; and so did I" (238-9). His perceptions of the rotting sea and deck drive him in on himself, but his inner resources have closed off, he is unable to pray; moreover, "A wicked whisper came, and made / My heart as dry as dust" (246-7). Is the Mariner aware for a moment that in some way he wished for the deaths of his shipmates, so that he might be spared?