The third chapter analyses Coleridge’s body of work including his poems, philosophical writings, notebook entries, letters and lecture notes in terms of eternal return. After doing so, the second chapter traces the manifestation of the idea within the Romantic Movement. The reason these two scholars are chosen is that Eliade’s study shapes the modern understanding of the idea, while Nietzsche’s understanding of the idea bears strong resemblance to that of Coleridge’s. To do so, the first chapter tries to clearly clarify eternal return in Eliade and Nietzsche’s points of view.

This thesis, therefore, aims at analysing Coleridge’s works in terms of eternal return. One can easily discern many close resemblances between the mariner and these characters and Nietzsche’s well-known Zarathustra. Especially in his tour de force “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” this idea shows itself clearly, with a portrayal of the mariner as a derivative of Cain or the Wandering Jew. His immense reading and philosophical background enabled him to incorporate this idea into his religious personal ideology, stepping short of saying openly what Nietzsche would almost half a century after him. Despite being a devout Christian, Coleridge mentions eternal return in many of his works, albeit indirectly.

Because eternal return demanded a cyclical time which connotes a universe without a beginning or an end, it goes against the teachings of the monotheistic religions. However, through the advent of monotheistic religions and their spread, this view was abandoned for the linear time belief, which was a means of giving the God omnipotence as the creator and ender of the universe and time. It has been, as made obvious especially by Mircea Eliade’s thorough study, a way for archaic societies and religious people to comprehend and make sense of the world. The myth of the eternal return has been a part of various cultures throughout the World.

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