In contemplating the concept of "holy marriage" today after our class discussion, I was struck by how this topic is not only present explicitly on the surface of Shakespeare's works, but also in a more symbolic and intrinsic way.
Shakespeare, in a sense, entered into a holy marriage with his writing. A marriage that combined (instead of man and woman through God), combined the ordinary people and the aristocrats through romantic, poetic language.
"Few things are less understood than the hieros gamos – the “sacred marriage”. Considered to be the “Holy Grail” of sexual rituals, is it within reach of comprehension and explanation?"
~Philip Coppins
I believe the answer to this question, to put it simply, is no. I do not think, no matter how much analyzing we do of a text (especially a as complicated a text as those of Shakespeare) that we can ever fully comprehend or explain it. We may be able to uncover the author's meaning behind a text. And we may be able to find our own meaning in one; and this is enough, because all good works speak timelessly to their readers. But as far as fully comprehending the marriage between mind and word is as complicated as trying to understand the hieros gamos.
~~~I am considering something along these lines for my final project for this class. ~~~AS
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