John Keble, 1822 [ reprinted from the Hymnal of The Protestant
Episcopal Church
The context of "Holy Matrimony" in The Sound and the
Fury
NOTES 1. Context of Keble's poem in The Sound and the Fury: Quentin is reminded of Keble's poem, "Holy Matrimony," while he is thinking of the weather. He is reminded of "the voice that breathed o'er Eden," which is God's voice, heard in the wind over the garden of Eden. Keble's poem glorifies marriage in prayer and calls marriage an eternal bond between a man, a woman, and God. Quentin imagines his relationship with his sister Caddy as a similar holy union. He believes that he and Caddy are like Adam and Eve, the primordial ancestors of the human race. As such, they are burdened with a tremendous responsibility. They are blessed but also doomed to separation because of Eve's sin. Her curiousity about the forbidden fruit tree is much like Caddy's curiousity about Damuddy's funeral, which Caddy peeks at by climbing the pear tree. But when Caddy becomes a woman, Quentin imagines that he has been injured, like Adam was injured when God took his rib to create Eve. The threat of losing Caddy - and therefore part of himself - is Quentin's separation anxiety. For him, losing Caddy to womanhood is a tragic loss of biblical proportions. Quentin, sympathetic to the stories of Adam's loss of a rib and Jesus' spear injury on the cross, imagines himself as an analogue to Christ. Accordingly, for him Caddy becomes a likeness or simulation of the bride of Christ. By infusing his own life with mythological, fantastic expectations, Quentin creates a suicidal martyrdom for himself so, like Adam and Jesus, he can justify his pain as suffering in atonement for the sins of others. [Context contributed by Joel Deshaye, 2000.] See also Genesis 3:8, "The Fall of Man": 8Then the man and his wife heard the
sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the
day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
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