Meaning and Significance

In an effort to maintain his distinction of meaning and significance, interpretation and critical assessment, E. D. Hirsch examines Welleck’s treatment of Marvell’s phrase “vegetable love.” He notes that “Welleck could not even make his point unless he could distinguish between what ‘vegetable’ probably means as used in the text and what it commonly means to us.” That’s true enough, but it doesn’t require, as Hirsch thinks, a “fixed” meaning in the text. It merely requires an ability to occupy, as it were, two times at once – Marvell’s past and our present.

More revealingly, Hirsch says, “One need not argue that the delight we may take in such new meanings must be ignored. On the contrary, once we have self-critically understood the text, there is little reason to exclude valuable or pleasant associations which enhance its significance. However, it is essential to exclude these associations in the process of interpretation, that is, in the process of understanding what a text means.”

“New meanings ” is surely a slip, but it’s a revealing one. For all his attempted rigor in keeping meaning and significance distinguished, he can’t help falling into ordinary speech, in which “it meant more to me the second time” is a perfectly common and perfectly sound observation.